Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson’s breast cancer announcement yesterday has reinvigorated calls for a screening process more equitable to Māori and Pasifika women.
The 50-year-old made the announcement at Parliament yesterday, telling media she would undergo a partial mastectomy at the start of July and take leave from the house.
As part of her announcement, Davidson highlighted inequities faced by Māori and Pasifika women in the breast cancer screening process.
"I can’t help but feel how deeply unfair it is that not everyone in Aotearoa has access to the same support I do," she said.
According to the Breast Cancer Foundation National Register, Wāhine Māori were 33% more likely to die of breast cancer within 10 years than Pākehā.
For Pacific women, 52% were more likely to die within 10 years than Pākehā.
"All of our health programmes and screening programmes are not effective in every community in the way that they need to be," Davidson said.
Her comments were echoed by Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Ah-Leen Rayner, who said mammograms were "vital", especially for Māori and Pacific women.
"What we do know is, if Māori have their breast cancer detected through a screening mammogram, the survival rates are exactly the same [as for non-Māori]," she told Breakfast this morning.
She said the 10-year survival rate was 95% if the cancer was detected early.
Rayner said breast cancer presented earlier for both Māori and Pasifika so the foundation recommended women in those communities started screening at 40.
She called on the Government to extend free screenings to this age for Māori and Pacific women.
Currently, screenings were free for women between 45 and 69, with this year’s budget allowing funding to push it to 75.
Rayner said a lot of Māori and Pasifika communities live in regional New Zealand where it was harder to get a screening.
"There isn’t as much access in regional New Zealand outside metropolitan city centres," she said.
Mobile units were dispatched to regional town centres, but "if you miss that, what we do know is you may need to travel for up to two to three hours, you’ll need to take time off work, you’ll need to find childcare".
"All of those things actually inhibit women going for mammograms. It’s not just a case of not wanting to. It is a case of access."
Rayner hoped Davidson’s announcement wpuld prompt more women to get screened.
“Marama has shown great courage at a very personal time, and she is coming forward with the importance of early detection and mammograms,” she said.
“We really need to see that for Māori and Pacific women, and women in general.”
Also joining Breakfast this Morning, Finance Minister Nicola Willis added that screening ages was something "we do need to keep a watch on".
For more information, go to timetoscreen.nz
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