UTV journalist Barbara McCann's breast cancer story

Transcript

00:00A routine mammogram saved my life, I would not have detected it myself.

00:09I'm in the age group where women are invited to go for a mammogram every three years.

00:17When I got my invitation this year, I threw it aside because I thought I don't need to

00:23go for one this year.

00:25Simply because a month earlier I had had an operation to remove a benign tumour from one

00:32of my ovaries and I thought, well they did all the cancer checks then so I'm not going

00:36to bother.

00:37But something made me think again and I thought, well the health service provide this service

00:46for women, they have put it all together so I really should go and I did, which is just

00:52as well because my cancer is so small that I couldn't have detected it myself.

00:58I was never in the habit of checking myself anyway and if I had left it and decided not

01:06to go for that mammogram, it would have been another three years before I would have been

01:11tested and that might have been too late for me.

01:16Don't put off going for a mammogram.

01:18If you're invited to have a mammogram, go.

01:22Don't do what I do initially, say no, because it could save your life.

01:28I'm forever grateful to the service that is provided for women and I feel very confident

01:36and happy and positive about the future.