New mammogram service for Tonga

Transcript

The Tongan Breast Cancer Society says the long held dream of gaining a mammogram machine is about to come true.

A spokesperson for the society, says October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the new cancer screening tool will be in use when the Mammography Unit opens at Vaiola Hospital this week.

Leta Kami told Jenny Meyer the service now means women will not have to endure the financial and emotional costs of leaving the country and being separated from their families to have their breasts screened.

LETA KAMI: To mark the launching of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Tonga we launched a new website which is www.tongabreastcancer.com  We are stronger together in lifting the awareness to get women of Tonga, men and women of Tonga, to go and get, if they discover a lump or any sort of signs that may need to be checked up or screened, please, the message is to go to the hospital and to get people to get checked and treated correctly with the proper medical attention.

JENNY MEYER: I understand that you're looking forward to getting a mammogram in use for the first time at the hospital there to help with better detection, better early detection of breast cancer?

LK: Yes. This has been a dream with the Tongan Breast Cancer Society, seven years old. I remember from the meeting five years ago when we were talking about a mammogram machine, and some of our members knew of assistance that we can get. And so we are really, really happy that finally this has come true. On the 10th of this month the commissioning of the Pink Clinic at the Vaiola Hospital here in Tonga, the commissioning of a mammography machine will be done. And it's thanks to the assistance from the Australian High Commission, and the Ministry of Health and also the Tonga Breast Cancer Society in establishing and having this technology finally available for the public.

JM: So that's a great leap forward, but I guess also you're trying to encourage people to overcome their own fear in seeking help and taking that step to go and see their doctor if they're worried about a lump or any problem in their beast?

LK: Yes, very true. Because here in Tonga we still have the traditional healers where most of the practitioners are women. So the women in Tonga, who tend to have higher incidences rather than the men, tend to go to the traditional healer because it's a woman, they'll be screened and touched by a woman and so they're much more comfortable to go to the traditional healer. So we're encouraging traditional healers "if you do discover a lump and you know you can't treat it, please direct the women to go to the hospital". But yes Jenny, what we find is the fear, the shame, and sometimes they think it's a curse, so we try to send the message that it's not, it's not associated with any of that. And it's not a death sentence either. Because breast cancer can be treated. Early detection, early treatment, can save your life.