A breast cancer survivor's urging women across North Yorkshire to check themselves for symptoms
New stats show less than half of women check themselves regularly - with one in ten saying they've never done it
New research commissioned by Breast Cancer Now, reveals that more than two in five (44%) women in the UK do not check their breasts regularly for possible signs and symptoms of breast cancer.
The survey also found that 1 in ten (10%) UK women revealed they’ve never checked their breasts, and 13% check at least once a year or less.
When asked what stops or prevents them from regularly checking their breasts, the main reasons women gave included: forgetting to check (46%), not being in the habit of checking their breasts (37%), lacking confidence in checking their breasts (18%), and 14% said they didn’t know how to check their breasts.
Of the women who do check their breasts for possible signs and symptoms of breast cancer, 3 in 10 (29%) don’t feel confident that they would notice a change.
Breast Cancer Now is calling for all women to ‘get to know their normal’ and help raise awareness of breast cancer and breast health.
Sarah Murphy from York - suffered herself in 2017: "I was astounded because the doctor said even though you've got this 5cm lump it's still classed as caught early and if everybody's was caught as early as yours you would have a 100% survival rate."
"It's crazy that as women we are not checking and some people don't go to screenings which is incredulous knowing what the survival rate could be if we all did our part."
"I was matter of fact 'What is treatment is going to be, when will it start and what will happen after that and what is the time scale?' and to be honest I just trusted them to tell me what I needed them to do."