This week is Health Week on Sunrise with each of the hosts undergoing tests for the most common killers in Australia. Co-host, Samantha Armytage, had a scary couple of days after going in for her first mammogram to check for breast cancer and receiving a callback to do further testing.
“I got a call back to say that there was an area of concern on my right breast. Immediately I thought the worst, as you tend to do. I had to do two more mammograms and an ultrasound to look closer at the peck muscle behind my right breast. It was a very scary day. The test took 5 hours. I did not know what the doctors would find,” she said on Channel 7 Sunrise this morning.
“Thankfully I was given the all clear. I now have to return every year for a mammogram to keep an eye on that area,” she said.
A blessing in disguise, Sam now urges other women to get a check-up earlier than they might think.
“It’s been quite a week,” she said on Sunrise. “But that’s good because it’s made me aware and the number one thing I’ve found out this week was that every doctor I saw, and I’ve seen a few said to me, I don’t know why they’re telling women to come in at 50. You girls should be coming in at 40.”
1 in 9 Australian women will get breast cancer and of those diagnosed, 50% are diagnosed with screening mammograms while the other 50% will feel a lump.
Organise your own screening today with BreastScreen Australia. The government initiative invites women aged 50-74 for a free mammogram every two years.
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