I am just dumbstruck and appalled by the recommendations that just came out about breast cancer. I started getting my mammograms at the age of 43 on a yearly basis. I was never pleased of course, to have to go and submit myself to this procedure,  but my doctor at the time insisted.

There has never been any history of breast cancer in my family so I just did it basically to make my doctor happy. When I was 49 I went in for my exam and lo and behold, in one year I had a very fast moving form of breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy!

If this is going to dissuade women who a lot of times already push it in the back of their minds of a list of “must do” things, I fear the mortality rate of breast cancer is going to severely rise!

If I had gone by this recommendation I wouldn’t be alive today. Many of my friends already balk at the idea and make excuses of why they haven’t gone in yet. This panel of so-called experts should be ashamed of themselves. Breast cancer cases have risen in the last few years and mammograms should not be taken lightly.

Now I fear that most health insurance companies will not pay for them because women are not in the right age bracket.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for women to have a yearly exam and I am appealing to any woman reading this letter to please keep it in your mind how important this is for not only your life but for your family’s as well.

Carolyn Birman, Lebanon