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Letter: Please reconsider cuts to HSN's breast screening clinic

Re: Article "Surgeon speaks out: Women will suffer when hospital axes breast screening assessment clinic," published by Sudbury.com Sept. 13.
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(File)

Re: Article "Surgeon speaks out: Women will suffer when hospital axes breast screening assessment clinic," published by Sudbury.com Sept. 13.

As a very recent breast cancer survivor, I am terrified for the population of Greater Sudbury after reading about the cuts to the city’s breast screening clinic.

This horrible experience is all so fresh in my mind as only a year ago — at 33 years old — I found myself at the old Memorial Hospital site after discovering a lump on my breast. The process moved so quickly and seamlessly.

I called to make an appointment and one was scheduled for me two days later. That day, I underwent an ultrasound, a mammogram, another ultrasound and a biopsy. 

I was absolutely terrified. 

Why would they be conducting so many tests if there wasn’t something seriously wrong with me? Your mind wanders to the worst-case scenario. 

My appointment at the breast screening clinic was on a Wednesday and it was the following Monday that I had an appointment with a surgeon (two business days!). Two days! Seems like no time at all, unless you’re waiting to hear if you have cancer, in which case it seems like a lifetime. I remember sobbing on my way to work – assuming the worst as most of us would when placed in this type of situation.

When Monday arrived and I met with a surgeon, I was told that I had cancer and I was scheduled for surgery on Thursday (three days later). I was in shock and my body automatically went into autopilot.

When I look back on this experience, I am flooded with emotions. One of which is gratitude. I am so grateful for the breast screening clinic in Sudbury. I am so grateful that I was able to be seen so quickly by the screening team and then by a surgeon. I felt like my health was being treated as an extreme priority – which is exactly the way I wanted it to be treated.

I am currently met with a feeling of fear after reading about the planned cuts to the breast screening program. I am fearful for other women in the area like me – who need to be seen quickly in order to better their chances of surviving this horrible disease. I am fearful for myself in the event that I need this clinic again in the future.

As I see it, the breast screening clinic was a key player in saving my life. How can we put a price on someone’s life? If cuts need to be made to budget, this is not the place to do it, and I urge them to reconsider. It is 2018, and we need to be taking steps forward to better our health care, and this plan seems to be suggesting that we take two steps back.

Courtney Farrow
Concerned citizen/breast cancer survivor