BreastScreenNT celebrates 30-year anniversary

A lifesaving scan has saved hundreds of lives in the 30 years it has been offered freely to Territorians.

BreastScreenNT's Anne Davies and Health Minister Steve Edgington attended a celebration event at the Casuarina Health Services Centre to mark 30th anniversary. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A lifesaving scan has saved hundreds of lives in the 30 years it has been offered freely to Territorians.

BreastScreenNT celebrated its 30th anniversary on Wednesday and reflected on the critical mammograms it has provided to 143,000 women in the Territory since 1994.

Health Minister Steve Edgington said the organisation had diagnosed 928 women with breast cancer that “otherwise may have gone undetected or be found at a later stage”.

“BreastScreenNT plays a vital role in the health of Territory women,” he said.

BreastScreenNT's Anne Davies attended a celebration event at the Casuarina Health Services Centre to mark 30th anniversary. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Mr Edgington said the Darwin and Alice Springs offices had been open since the organisation’s inception, but the mobile mammogram bus – dubbed “Millie” – started touring the remote corners of the territory in 2014.

He said more than 10,000 remote women had received mammograms thanks to the travelling service.

BreastScreenNT’s Anne Davies said the impact of mobile services for remote patients was “nothing short of extraordinary”.

“When I started in this sort of care, there was nothing like that at all,” she said.

“It has really been a game changer.

“The stats for breast screening are getting better and better, and that means that even though we’re diagnosing a lot of cancers, the five-year survival rate has continued to improve.”