Breast cancer caravan coming to Tauranga

Nurses at the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ will be on hand to offer advice and education as the pink caravan comes to town. Photo / supplied

What does a breast lump feel like? Women in Tauranga will have the chance to find out when Breast Cancer Foundation NZ's pink caravan comes to town next week.

With the use of a breast model, the caravan nurses offer women a hands-on way to learn what they should be feeling for when self-checking. The caravan also has visual displays of breast cancer symptoms that most women won't have seen before.

It will be parked next week at The Warehouse in Fraser Cover from 9am to 4pm on Wednesday; The Warehouse Tauranga during the same times on Thursday; and again at The Warehouse in Pāpāmoa.

Caravan breast nurse Trish Shole said: "Once you've seen them, you won't forget".

This year, the foundation urges women to "do it for the ones you love" and enrol in BreastScreen Aotearoa's free national breast screening programme. The caravan's nurses can enrol eligible women (aged 45 and up) when they visit.

· The breast care nurses have visual and hands-on displays of breast cancer symptoms that most women won't have seen before, and use prosthetic breasts to show what a lump feels like.
· Understand your own family history and lifestyle risk factors (my Mother and Aunty had breast cancer what is my risk? etc)
· What to do if you are worried
· Men are welcome to come and learn and take information home to the women in their lives - and to understand that men can get breast cancer too
· Talk about mammograms – how to enrol and when and where to get one
· The caravan has a fantastic range of printed information you can take with you, and a few freebies!
· Services and support available to those who have or have had breast cancer.

About Breast Cancer in New Zealand:
- More than 3,300 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer in NZ – that's 9 women a day
- 90-95 per cent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease
- Around 350 NZ women under the age of 45 (when free mammograms start) will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year – that's one woman a day
- More than 600 women will die of breast cancer this year – about the size of a large primary school.
- The earlier breast cancer is found, the better the outcome. The 10-year survival rate is 92 per cent if the cancer is detected by regular screening mammogram
- Breast Cancer Foundation NZ recommends women consider having yearly breast screening mammograms at age 40-49 years of age, then screen every two years from age 50.
- Free screening is available for women from age 45 through BreastScreen Aotearoa.