“Did you know there are some types of breast cancer that is not picked up by mammogram?”

Their answer is usually ‘no’, to which Edda responds, “Get an ultrasound. It could save your life.”

Edda, a long-time Mount Isa resident hailing from Germany, falls into the minority of women who slip through screening with a clear result.

The Breast Cancer Institute says mammogram is still the most reliable detection screening tool out there, with mammography correctly identifying around 85 per cent of breast cancers.

Edda’s story begins nine years ago when she found a lump in her right breast.

She visited the BreastScreen van at Mount Isa Hospital for a mammogram, and nothing showed up.

Edda’s GP had another look at the x-ray and advised her to get an ultrasound, just in case. 

A second mammogram and ultrasound had conflicting results. The mammogram was clear, but the ultrasound showed abnormalities in Edda’s breast tissue.

A needle biopsy confirmed that Edda had breast cancer.

“And that’s when the world sort of shifted under my feet,” Edda said.

Refusing to believe the news, she flew to Townsville for a second opinion.

“I jumped on the next plane. I thought, they have different machines, they’re going to have a different outcome," Edda laughed.

“I never thought I would react that way, but that’s the way it got,” she said.

The second lot of results were the same – a clear mammogram and irregular ultrasound, with a biopsy confirming cancerous cells.

“The oncologist told me, ‘You have the type of breast cancer that we cannot cure, but we can prolong your life. It will come back in different parts of your body’,” Edda said.

Edda began chemotherapy at the oncology ward in Mount Isa, and two years later she was in remission.

“I had to go every three months and then every six months for body scans to see if it had come up anywhere else,” she said.

Unfortunately, it did. Edda’s cancer returned in November last year, as three little tumours on her lung. The news was horrific.

“It felt like that famous heavy-weight boxer gave me one for nothing, that’s what it felt like,” she said.

Edda now visits the Cancer Care Unit in Mount Isa for ongoing treatment, two weeks on, one week off.

Her only wish for the rest of her days is to encourage women to get checked, and check again.

Breast Cancer Nurse at Mount Isa Hospital’s Cancer Care Unit, Nicole Williams, says mammograms are still the best means of early detection, which is the best defence.

Nicole said there are literally hundreds of types of breast cancer, due to its mutant nature.

“They break them down on a cellular level, so ten women could have the same breast cancer, but driven by a different hormone, slow growing, fast growing, multi-focal, invasive, local, it goes on and on,” she said.

“As the breast care nurse I can’t say anything negative about it (screening) at all, because I see the results.

“I’ve got women now that have told me they have never done a self-check, and that mammogram picked up their cancer,” Nicole said.

BreastScreen Queensland recommends mammograms every two years for their target demographic of women between 50 to 74 years old, however they also offer free screening to those over 40, or over 75.

The BreastScreen mobile van is at Mount Isa Hospital now until August 29, and all mammograms are free.

Call 13 20 50 to make an appointment, or book online.