All aboard the boob bus!
Statistics show one in seven Australian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, making early detection a vital part of reducing illness and death from this disease.
By Nadia Howland
Australia’s BreastScreen program aims to screen as many eligible women as possible through mammograms (breast x-rays) to improve survival rates—and so far, it’s done just that.
Between 1985–89 and 2011–15, five-year relative survival rates from breast cancer improved from 75% to 94%.
The problem is, not everyone lives near a BreastScreen clinic to get a mammogram—which is the case for many women living in the Top End.
Since opening in Alice Springs and Darwin in 1994, BreastScreenNT has provided breast screens to more than 143,000 Northern Territory (NT) women. The scans have diagnosed 928 women with breast cancer that otherwise may have gone undetected or been found at a later stage.
During its 30-year history, BreastScreenNT has grown and evolved to improve service delivery in remote communities.
In June 2014, BreastScreenNT launched ‘Millie’—a mobile mammogram bus designed to take breast screening to women in remote parts of the NT.
On average, Millie travels approximately 16,000km each year around the NT to remote communities.
To date, more than 10,000 women in remote communities have received a mammogram on Millie.
BreastScreenNT works with remote primary healthcare centres to encourage all eligible women to have a mammogram when Millie is visiting their community.
There are permanent screening facilities in Darwin and Palmerston and two screening blocks each year in Alice Springs in April to May and August to September.
All women aged 40 years and older are welcome to a free screen with BreastScreenNT.
Did you know?
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among Australian women, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer.
Australian women aged between 50 and 74 years are invited to have a free mammogram every two years. You can still have a free mammogram if you’re aged between 40 and 49 years, or 75 years and over—you just won’t receive an invitation in the mail.
Millie has once again hit the road to commence mobile screenings, reaching regional and remote communities across the NT from May to October this year.
Some of these remote locations include Wurrumiyanga, Daly River, Katherine, Borroloola, Tennant Creek, Ti Tree, Hermannsburg, Yuendumu, Harts Range, and Ali Curung.
Millie visits a network of regional centres in the NT over a two-year cycle.
In 2024, Millie visited 12 remote communities, screened 1,102 women, and travelled over 16,000km including travelling on barges to coastal locations inaccessible by road.
As well as breast screening, women in remote locations will be encouraged to have a full health check as part of Women’s Health Week (1–5 September), organised to coincide with Millie’s visits.
Women who live great distances away from clinics and travel to receive a free mammogram will also be able to have their cervical screen and consult local clinic staff about other health issues.
Detection of breast cancer, when it is small and confined to the breast, provides the best chance of effective treatment. The benefits of early detection also include a greater range of treatment options and improved quality of life after treatment. The survival rate for early breast cancer is more than 95%, with the majority of breast cancers diagnosed by BreastScreenNT falling into this category.
Belinda, 69, is a breast cancer survivor who says early detection is the reason she is alive today.
“I have always had regular mammograms, but it was just on a whim that I mentioned a persistent pain in my armpit to my doctor during a check-up,” she says.
“She said it was probably nothing to worry about but sent me for a breast ultrasound just to be safe. We were both floored when they picked up an extremely small but aggressive breast cancer in my left breast. When I saw my surgeon for the first time, she told me how incredibly lucky I was to have found the cancer while it was still so small, given how aggressive that type of cancer is known to be. Had it gotten much bigger, my odds of survival might have been very different.”
Belinda underwent immediate surgery to remove the cancer, followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
“The treatment wasn’t easy, but I am so grateful to be here and to be cancer-free,” she says.
“My daughters and nieces are in their early 40s and I am constantly telling them, ‘Check your boobs!’, ‘Get a mammogram!’ It’s a 10-minute appointment that could save your life.”
Click here to find a BreastScreen clinic near you.
This article is featured in National Seniors Australia’s quarterly member magazine, Our Generation.
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