As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, the service can look back on a string of significant achievements.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the state had a strong history of providing women with quality free breast cancer screening services.

“BreastScreen Queensland has performed more than 4.7 million breast screens for women aged 50 to 69 years,” Dr Young said.

“For women aged 50 to 69, Queensland has the third highest breast screening rate in Australia at 57.3 per cent, ahead of the national rate of 54.5 per cent.

“Every day, around 650 women have a breast screen.

“This has led to more than 19,000 Queensland women being diagnosed with breast cancer that might previously have gone undiagnosed until too late.

“A breast screen is the best way to detect breast cancer early, well before a woman or her doctor can feel anything.

“Early detection could save your life.”

Dr Young said when BreastScreen Queensland started operations in 1991; it was delivered through just three locations at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, the Gold Coast and Townsville.

“In that first year, the service screened fewer than 5000 women,’’ she said.

“By last financial year, with services now being delivered from more than 200 different locations, more than 250,000 women had potentially lifesaving breast screens.

“Queensland was also the first state to transition all breast screening services to state-of-the-art digital mammography equipment.”

All women aged between 50 and 74 are strongly encouraged to have a free breast screen every two years.

Women aged 40 to 49 and over 75 are also eligible to attend for free.

A doctor’s referral is not required.

For more information visit: http://www.breastscreen.qld.gov.au/ or to book your free breastscreen appointment call 13 20 50.