Combined screening day a great success

The Wahine Ora Day screening team.
The Wahine Ora Day screening team.
There was food, giveaways and lots of laughter at the recent Wahine Ora Screening Day at BreastScreen Central in Lower Hutt to celebrate both Breast Cancer Action Month and Cervical Screening Awareness Month.

It’s the first time the breast and cervical screening teams have held a combined screening day.

Regional Coordinator Robyn Fox says it was a great success with a total of 50 women having mammograms or cervical screening on the day or soon afterwards. They included 22 Māori and Pacific priority women having mammograms on the day and a further 24 making appointments to be screened. All of them had their mammograms by the end of November.

“Thirteen of them also had cervical smears on the day. The majority of these women had not been screened for years. One had not had a smear for 12 years.”

The screening day was held in collaboration with Regional Screening Services BreastScreen Central and Cervical Screening, Te Awakairangi Health Network, Mana Wahine Incorporated and Te Runanganui o Taranaki Whanui ki te Upoko o te Ika. The smear taker was Jermaine Waikari from Kokiri Marae Health Services in Lower Hutt, a member of Mana Wahine.

Robyn says one woman out walking with her mum saw the sign and came to see if she could make an appointment for breast screening as she was unable to come during the week due to work commitments. “We were able to screen her on the day and both she and her mum left singing our praises,” says Robyn.

“It was a very enjoyable day and its success means we’ll certainly look at running more combined screening days in the future.”

Pictured above are the Wahine Ora Day screening team. From left to right: Robyn Fox, Regional Co-ordinator Regional Screening Services; Tanya Radford, Lead Health Promoter Te Awakairangi Health Network; Tira Albert, Manager Mana Wahine Incorporated; Dayna Wilson, Well-Women Mana Wahine Community Health Worker.

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Page last updated: 13 December 2013