Rosemary - Interview 48

Age at interview: 65

Brief Outline: Rosemary has always attended for breast screening and had normal results. She has had several friends with breast cancer.

Background: Rosemary is married with four adult children. Ethnic background/nationality: White British.

More about me...

When she was about 32-years-old, Rosemary found a lump and was extremely worried. It turned out to be completely harmless and she was told that the breast change was actually because she was pregnant. 

Many of her friends have had breast cancer and Rosemary had a few mammograms done privately before the age of fifty. From the age of fifty onwards, she has always attended for routine breast screening and her results have been normal.

Rosemary sais she deosn't think or worry about going for a mammogram beforehand or whilst waiting for the results. She finds the procedure very quick and easy, though a little uncomfortable for a short time. She will continue having mammograms after the age of seventy if her GP recommends it.  

Rosemary never worries about going for screening and is very happy with the service.

Once you started going on the NHS programme which starts around the age of fifty, it could be fifty, fifty-one, but around that age, was it always to [hospital name]?

It was always to [hospital name], yes, yeah.

Have you noticed any changes over the last few years?

No, the only changes I've noticed is the venue but apart from that I certainly have had no complaints. It's just been a routine thing that has been very efficient as far as I'm concerned. And of course I've only had negative [normal] results, so it's been wonderful.

Yes, and every time you've been there has it been the same experience or did you find it more, maybe worrying on the first one or you didn't, you knew what to expect?

I think I knew what to expect. And the people were very, they've always been very kind, they seem to understand what we're going through, but I've never obviously got any further than that because I've always had the nice letter saying everything's okay.

Do you worry at all before going or

No.

It's something you do quite routinely?

I just wait, the letter comes, I think it's every three years, and I do it. And I actually completely forget about it. And my husband opened my letter this time, which he doesn't normally do and told me. I'd completely forgotten.

Right, so in-between the appointment and the letter you completely forget about it?

Yeah, yes. [Laughs] yes I do, I'm lucky.

And since you've been going on the breast screening programme how many times have you been, can you remember that or?

[Laughs].

It's something you don't think about

I don't know. I think it's something that automatically happens every three years so I've prob, if I started at fifty and now I'm sixty-five, my arithmetic isn't that good but it's a handful of times [laughs]. I've never not gone, I've always done it.

You've always attended?

Yes.

I can't say it's something, as you have gathered, that I think about too often. I know it's there and I don't think about it and, because thank God, I don't think about health, too often [laughs]. I just don't want it to happen I suppose, bad health. But I've been a very lucky person up until, today.

Did you got your letter today?

No, no, a couple of day, a few days ago yeah.

Yeah. So is there anything you would want to say about breast screening or the procedure?

Well, I certainly don't have any complaints about what has happened to me at [hospital name]. I would say the whole thing is satisfactory. I can't complain about any of it. I mean it's a National Health Service which has been very efficient as far as I'm concerned. And talking briefly to those ladies who were being held up, they also probably felt the same. Yeah. I think that's my impression of it. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong but that's what I've found. You know I think we feel that it's a wonderful service because, probably, I might neglect myself if it wasn't a service that the National Health provide, yeah.

Rosemary always attends for routine mammograms. She had some done privately, before she was eligible for free NHS screening, because friends of hers had had breast cancer.

I've never had any problem. I suppose I think I must have had a couple of mammograms I can't think why, and then got into the, over whatever age it is that you start having them. Fifty or fifty-five or something like that?

Fifty.

And that's all I've had.

So before the routine screening at fifty you had a couple of mammograms?

I think I do recall that, maybe that was because I have a lot of friends who've had breast cancer.

Yeah, did you have those mammograms privately?

Probably yes, I think so yes.

Right so you've been, you've been very aware?

Aware?

Because of the experiences of friends?

There was a time when I knew eleven people who had breast cancer.

All within a certain age group or?

Mostly my sort of age group, one was a young woman who died. The rest, apart from one, have all survived and are fine. But one of them died, but they were all of similar age to me. So maybe it was fear again that sent me to do something, I can't remember. I don't remember ever having any lumps or feelings like that, just concerns.