WORRIED women were today urged not to turn their backs on the East Lancashire Breast Screening Programme.

Health Secretary Frank Dobson has ordered a review of the nationwide service after doctors at a Devon NHS trust failed to detect the disease in 12 women.

But East Lancashire's public health boss, Dr Stephen Morton, gave the local service a big vote of confidence and urged women to keep their mammography appointments.

The screening programme, which started in 1988, offers three-yearly X-rays to detect pre-cancerous lumps in women aged between 50 and 64.

The take-up in East Lancashire - where breast cancer kills two women a week - is well above the Government's 70 per cent target and in the first three years potentially deadly tumours were spotted in 156 women. Dr Morton said: "It is not a perfect system. No screening programme is 100 per cent perfect, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

"The evidence is clear cut that regular mammograms reduce mortality from breast cancer.

"The take-up in East Lancashire is good and the percentage of women recalled for further treatment after a mammogram is within Government guidelines."

He said he supported the retention of district-wide breast and cervical screening programmes. He said East Lancashire's "double approach" to fighting breast cancer included screening and promoting breast awareness in all women.

His comments were backed by cancer patient Jean Roberts who owes her life to a mammogram.

Jean, 61, of Barnoldswick Road, Higherford, had no idea she had cancer until the routine scan diagnosed an abnormality.

She said: "I hope they do not scrap the service. How are they going to diagnose this horrible disease if they stop the programme? I would not have known about my cancer if it had not been for the mammogram."

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