New Zealand women aged 70 and 74 can now have free breast screening every two years.
It comes after a year-long pilot screening programme in Nelson-Marlborough, where 370 women in those age groups had free mammograms between October 2024 and July this year.
Health Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement today: “Each October for the next three years, eligibility will extend to include women aged 71, 72 and 73.
“The extension means women will be eligible for an average of two to three extra mammograms once the programme is fully implemented, and around 130,000 additional women will be eligible for screening every two years. This phased approach ensures health services can expand in step with demand while maintaining quality care.”
Brown said a new digital platform is being used to identify eligible women and invite them for screening.
Nelson woman Rita is one of them. She was diagnosed with breast cancer this year at the age of 74.
Now, she is urging others who are eligible to take up the offer of free mammograms as they become available around the country.
The mum-of-three, who also has three grandchildren, had been getting her regular mammograms until the age of 69 – the previous age limit for funded breast screening.
“Every two years I got the message, I made my appointment and everything was fine. So when it stopped, I just thought, ‘oh, it’s never going to happen again. I’ve been clear for years’,” she tells the Herald.
“The nurse from my doctor’s practice sent me a text at the end of last year saying, ‘Good news, did you know you’re eligible for another mammogram? As long as you get your appointment before your birthday, you’re in’.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’ll take it up’.”
Rita had her mammogram in February this year, remembering it as a “piece of cake”.
“But there was a recall, and even then, they said it may be nothing.”
She had more scans and a biopsy which confirmed she had an early stage, slow-growing form of breast cancer.
“I just kept thinking, I’m lucky to find that out.”
Rita hadn’t experienced any pain or symptoms before her diagnosis.
“They said I would not have been able to feel this, no way. So, it was only that the mammogram showed it up.
“[It] could have been quite different.”
She underwent surgery and got the all-clear. Since then, she’s been in good health, joking that she’s “stepped up the exercise” on the advice of her doctors.
“I feel better for that anyway.”
Now, she feels lucky to still be around for her children and grandchildren, and to live where she does.
“I think most of my feelings about that whole period of time were just how thankful I was and how lucky I was that I was in this first region that was where it rolled out.
“I used to live in Wellington, so had I been there, I wouldn’t have had the benefit of this.”
For others who get the opportunity to have more funded mammograms as they get older, she says, “take up the opportunity”.
“In lots of ways, it’s a bit like a warrant of fitness. Don’t leave it too long because there’ll be bigger trouble further down the road.”
The Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand has been campaigning to raise the screening age limit for eight years, as the risk of getting breast cancer increases with age.
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ chair Justine Smyth said: “Thanks to the extension, more women will have the chance to detect breast cancer early, when it’s most treatable. And early detection means less invasive treatment, faster recovery, and most importantly – more lives saved.”
Around 3500 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in New Zealand – with around 350 of them in the 70-74 age group.
Bethany Reitsma is a lifestyle writer who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all things health and wellbeing and is passionate about telling Kiwis’ real-life stories.