Mammogram on a bus!

Visgir1

That's been going on for years... It's a mobile unit I think it's a brilliant idea always have.

Yup, a mobile unit not a caravan or a bus.
What does it matter? It’s better to go somewhere locally and easy and free to park isn’t it?

Casdon

That’s a different situation than for people who have not had ever had breast cancer though growstuff, as yours is follow up rather than routine screening, I think if enough women opt to ask for routine screening to continue after 70, the age limit should be increased, because it’s quite arbitrary now.

The poster wrote:

It stops at age 71 even if you have had breast cancer.

No, it doesn't stop at 71 for people who've had breast cancer.

That’s a different situation than for people who have not had ever had breast cancer though growstuff, as yours is follow up rather than routine screening, I think if enough women opt to ask for routine screening to continue after 70, the age limit should be increased, because it’s quite arbitrary now.

Allira

RedRidingHood

Just grateful to get one. After my breast cancer I had a mammogram every year for 5 years but now I'm back to 3 yearly which is a bit nerve wracking. I plan to pay for a private one in between.
The NHS goes to great lengths to maximise uptake of screening (breast, lungs and bowel in particular). Theres always a cohort who go but also some groups who are hard to reach.
I'm involved as a volunteer in cancer services improvement and I was told that uptake of mammograms varies from 30% to 70% in different areas

It stops at age 71 even if you have had breast cancer.

You can request a mammogram but it could be at a hospital a long way away.

No, it doesn't. I've had breast cancer and I'll be having two more scheduled mammograms. The last one will be when I'm 72. I would have had five follow-up mammograms whatever age I was when I was diagnosed. I've already been told that, after that, I can book with my local screening service, which (admittedly) does mammograms in a "bus" in the local Tesco car park.

I’ve always had my mammograms on a ‘bus’, in reality a mobile scanning unit. It’s situated in the local sports centre car park. How on earth is it undignified? And why would it matter that people know the reason you are going in there? 🤷‍♀️

@Allira I'm aware they don't call you after 70 but you can still request one. I've spoken to the BC screening centre and they were very helpful.

Everything is a long way for me as we live in an area with very 2nd rate NHS facilities. I had to drive a 2 hour round trip for my mammogram for the last 5 years. A private one will be in York which is a 90 minute drive.

Eddiecat that would have been a good cover story for me. The joys of GC who share worries with you that their parents know nothing about. I'm honoured, I think.

RedRidingHood

Just grateful to get one. After my breast cancer I had a mammogram every year for 5 years but now I'm back to 3 yearly which is a bit nerve wracking. I plan to pay for a private one in between.
The NHS goes to great lengths to maximise uptake of screening (breast, lungs and bowel in particular). Theres always a cohort who go but also some groups who are hard to reach.
I'm involved as a volunteer in cancer services improvement and I was told that uptake of mammograms varies from 30% to 70% in different areas

It stops at age 71 even if you have had breast cancer.

You can request a mammogram but it could be at a hospital a long way away.

Marilla

Call me ridiculous but is it dignified to go to a supermarket car park to have a mammogram? So everyone knows why you are going on the bus. Apparently some people are having chemotherapy on a bus parked in a Tesco car park in Suffolk!

I'm in Suffolk too. I have had mammograms in the carpark of the swimming pool for many years. We can book at the West Suffolk Hospital if we prefer, but their carpark charges and it's further away. I think it's much quicker and more efficient in the mobile unit.

Just grateful to get one. After my breast cancer I had a mammogram every year for 5 years but now I'm back to 3 yearly which is a bit nerve wracking. I plan to pay for a private one in between.
The NHS goes to great lengths to maximise uptake of screening (breast, lungs and bowel in particular). Theres always a cohort who go but also some groups who are hard to reach.
I'm involved as a volunteer in cancer services improvement and I was told that uptake of mammograms varies from 30% to 70% in different areas

I used to love the buses - so convenient. Now I have to schlepp 25 miles to the "Mammogram Centre" which is not at a hospital but is a building at the back of a pub .... I know which I preferred.

I just feel incredibly lucky to be offered a mammogram, wherever it may be.

What a good idea - I have an hour's bus ride each way to the town where the nearest hospital is, then between three quarters of an hour to an hour to wait for a local bus from the bus station to the hospital, so it takes all day for the quickest appointment.

I remember going as a small child with my mother to be X-rayed for TB on a bus.

Why does it worry you that "everyone" knows why you go to that bus? Looking after our health is sensible and no-one's business except our own.

Ours parks up at the garden centre too, fab idea. I always treat myself to a coffee and a couple of plants afterwards.

Several years go it parked at the swimming pool but my appointment wasn't at the same time as a public swim session which was a bit disappointing.

My breast cancer was picked up on a mammogram, the venue, Sainsbury's car park. 15 plus years cancer free now and well over 70 I still have a three yearly mammogram. Only difference is that I now have to request one instead of being on automatic recall. Very easy to do, just phone, you often get a choice of dates and times.

Mine was next to the cinema and pizza hut! But so easy to park!,

I have had mammograms in several different supermarket car parks and in the Health Centre car park. When something was picked up I was sent to the Breast Imaging Centre at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. Breast cancer was diagnosed and dealt with. Eight years on if I have a mammogram it’s back to the car parks, which is fine.

Personally I don’t care what carpark it is in. All I know from personal experience is that it identifies things and there is immediate follow up. Without that initial scan in the carpark, where would I be now.

Does it matter that people know you are there for a mammogram. Is this just NHS bashing again….its supposed to make it easier than trekking to hospitals

All good as far as I’m concerned, I had every one in a ‘bus’ very convenient, a few miles down the road, plenty of parking.
Why would it matter if people knew you were going for a mammogram? And why on earth would anyone care?

I am sure she feels a lot better after this display of kindness.

I wonder if OP has to cover her head when she goes for her dental checkup, so nobody can guess why she's there.

Please DO NOT promote ignorant prejudice that might put women off going for a mammogram.

When we lived on an island, the mammogram bus came over on the ferry once a year , parked in the supermarket car park for a week and local women due for screening were invited (in advance by post) to make an appointment . The procedure was just as kind, discreet and efficient as mammography in the hospital where I had breast surgery (and several mammograms done.)

Many people in rural and remote areas live a long way from a hospital and radiographer..

Less than half an hour in the Mobile van, fitted in around supermarket shop; was much more convenient for routine regular screening, than taking an unreliable ferry to the mainland then a train to Glasgow then a bus or taxi to hospital A return journey of 100 miles taking the best part of a day. .... subject to sea conditions.

40 + years ago I survived breast cancer because it was detected and treated in time.

theworriedwell

I've never felt embarrassed about it unlike escorting teenage GC to the sexual health clinic as they wouldn't go alone. Sitting there I wondered if people were shocked at a 70 year old needing their services

Did have a laugh with the nurse about waiting so long for my first visit to what we'd have called the clap clinic when I was a teenager. We were a bit uncouth.

At one point out local sexual health clinic was in the same place as the hearing aid clinic!

I've never felt embarrassed about it unlike escorting teenage GC to the sexual health clinic as they wouldn't go alone. Sitting there I wondered if people were shocked at a 70 year old needing their services

Did have a laugh with the nurse about waiting so long for my first visit to what we'd have called the clap clinic when I was a teenager. We were a bit uncouth.