You can help women just like Kathleen by supporting our Mammogram Breast Cancer Appeal…
Did you know that 30-40 breast cancers are detected and diagnosed in the Mater Hospital every month? Your kindness has the power to bring the latest in life-saving, cancer-fighting technology to women who need it most.
With your help, we want to purchase a new, cutting-edge mammogram machine for the hospital’s Breast Health department – because the women you love deserve the very best in cancer-detecting technology.
With the highest quality imaging, your generosity will help our doctors to find even the smallest, most subtle cancers. The better the technology our doctors have at their fingertips, the more cancers we can catch and the more mothers, daughters, sisters and wives we can help.
Will you support this urgent appeal with a gift today to help provide the gold standard in breast cancer imaging, detection and care to women across Ireland?
Dr Emma Stanley, Consultant Radiologist
“Mammogram imaging is the cornerstone of breast cancer diagnosis and care. We just can’t function without good mammograms. For us to have a mammogram machine that we can be fully confident in — that can take the highest quality pictures, help us perform biopsies, and help find very subtle cancers — it’s really going to make a difference.
Any help you can give today is so appreciated.” — Dr. Emma Stanley, Consultant Radiologist at the Mater Hospital.
Dr Emma Stanley, Consultant Radiologist and Finn Keane, Breast Health Nurse
This state-of-the-art technology will help women just like mother-of-four Kathleen, whose worst fears were confirmed in the Mater after discovering a lump in her breast.
Kathleen knows first-hand how important these mammogram machines are in the fight against breast cancer. She shares her story below…
“I found a lump on my breast a few years ago. I caught sight of it by chance in the mirror as I was getting out of the shower. It was rock-hard, like a marble, and I thought — that’s not right. So I did what you’d probably do… ask ‘Dr Google’!
Kathleen during her treatment
“And I know when you look up your symptoms on the internet, all roads lead to ‘cancer’. But this time, Dr Google was right. I went to the Mater, had my mammogram and biopsies, then I went into a consulting room, and the doctor told me I had an aggressive form of breast cancer.
“You hear the word ‘cancer’, and the first thing that comes into your head is — I’m going to die. That was my biggest fear. My Dad died young, and you think about your kids and who is going to look after them. But the doctors and nurses were so reassuring, and I started chemo almost straight away.”
Kathleen and her youngest, Jake.
“It was tough for my little boy, Jake. He was only 10 when I was going through treatment. I had to explain to him about my hair. That it would fall out. He’d say, ‘Mammy, don’t worry I’ll still think you’re beautiful.’ You try to keep spirits up. I used to do silly things to make him laugh… Like, he’d be in his room, and I’d turn my head sideways — which was bald at this point — and peer around the door at him slowly, without a word. He’d catch sight of me and roll about laughing.
“I’m cancer-free a year now. That I’m still here today, able to write to you — I put that down to early detection. And that’s why this new gold-standard mammogram machine is so important. So needed. And the better the machine, the better it is at detecting cancers like mine.”
Thank you for being the heart of our hospital and for giving what you can.
