Call for breast screening technology in Wairarapa

Clareville breast cancer survivor Adele Pentony-Graham is frustrated by the lack of breast screening technology in Wairarapa and is calling for an oncologist and full mammogram facilities in the region.
Mrs Pentony-Graham, who is on strict medication after a mastectomy in January last year, said a mammogram service for Wairarapa would save lives and encourage more women to get breast screening.
She is making her plea in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and also wants to see better transport provided for those who have to travel outside the region for treatment.
"It's time we had our own mammogram service for Wairarapa, our own oncology doctor as well. We've got a lovely new hospital so I think we should have full facilities as well," Mrs Pentony-Graham said.
"It's simply not going to happen. There's only five oncology centres in the country. The reality is that there's a whole infrastructure around that. We are keen to increase local access from oncologists, we have a visiting oncologist from Palmerston North and that's an outreach service, but the central hub has to be where the oncology expertise and equipment is," Wairarapa Hospital general manager Anne McLean said.
"We're always looking at improving services but digital mammography machines cost about $500,000, the number of diagnostic cases are very rare, no more than two a month. Once they've been diagnosed our job is to ensure they are referred to the best possible place, whether we do it here or Hutt does it," she said.
Mrs Pentony-Graham, who is at high risk of developing another breast cancer, now has to travel to Lower Hutt for follow-up care.
"To get to an appointment in Lower Hutt it's a dickens of a job. I have to catch the 7.10am train at Carterton, which gets to Waterloo at 8.30. If you wait for the next train, it comes to Carterton at 10.50am. One doesn't want to drive down there all the time trying to concentrate on the road all in order to have someone squashing your breasts for a few minutes. We should have facilities in Masterton for mammograms," Mrs Pentony-Graham said.
"You can't have the Cancer Society take you down, unless you are receiving cancer treatment. I have had to ask for help twice so far. I am a breast cancer survivor, I'm a Cyclops one-sided now, but I am here to tell the tale and believe me, prevention is better than cure."
Dr Madeleine Wall, BreastScreen Aotearoa clinical leader, said that women, like Mrs Pentony-Graham, who previously had a breast cancer are two or more times more likely to have a second breast cancer than other women their age.
"If you've had a breast cancer and are having follow-up treatment then you'll be seeing somebody regularly to have a clinical breast exam," she said.
"My plea to the local ladies get your smear and mammograms done regularly. Never think it won't happen to you it did to me, and I used to have two yearly mammograms," Mrs Pentony-Graham said.
In lieu of a full mammography service in the region Mrs Pentony-Graham has suggested a regular bus service or extra scheduled trains for patients in need of ongoing treatment.