“Pink October” in Saint-Berthevin: “If breast cancer is detected early, there is a nine out of ten chance of being cured”

“It is very important to take the examinations recommended by the Primary Health Insurance Fund.“, assures Géraldine. This 50-year-old Laval resident participated this Sunday, October 6 in a race in Saint-Berthevin (Mayenne), as part of the “Pink October” awareness campaign“, to fight against breast cancer.

Her cousin, now in remission, suffered from the disease. “It makes you want to pay attention even more“, testifies the one who has already carried out several mammograms. “We can go back and say to ourselves, there is no problem. We always tell ourselves that everything is fine, but we don’t know what it really is, so we really have to do the exams.”

Self-palpation to detect abnormalities

The fifty-year-old admits, however, that she doesn’t take enough time to look at her chest at home. Yet, self-palpation should be a reflex, from the age of thirtyrecalls Paul Aufrere, general practitioner in Saint-Berthevin. “Just visually, it could be a change in size, swelling, redness, an orange peel appearance… All that already, it’s just inspection, and I’m not sure that all the women know how to recognize it; knowing that it is not necessarily brutal, it can be progressive.” After the inspection, there is self-palpation of the breast and chest… A habit to get into according to the doctor, because if the disease is detected early enough, breast cancer is cured within nine cases out of ten.