Breast Health Day 15 October 2012

Join the 2012 Campaign ‘Make Good Choices For Your Breast Health”

Election of new Chairperson to EDI Board

Europa Donna Ireland - the Irish Breast Cancer Campaign - is pleased to announce the election of Ms Dympna Watson as Chairperson.

Passing of Pat Hargadon

It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Pat Hargadon, Avon breast cancer nurse counsellor at ARC Cancer Support House in Eccles St., Dublin.

Breast Health Day 2011

Europa Donna has established Breast Health Day as an annual event on 15th October to remind girls and women about the importance of lifestyle factors that can influence their future breast health and help prevent breast cancer.
 
This year's campaign is Make Healthy Choices and will continue to remind women that engaging in physical exercise, maintaining a normal body weight, and eating a healthy diet can help protect their breast health.

Europa Donna Ireland is inviting women and groups throughout Ireland to organise an awareness raising (not a fund raising) event involving some form of enjoyable physical activity on the 15th October.

Marc Jacobs Tote Bag for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer 2011 

Brown Thomas teamed up with New York Designer Marc Jacobs to create a ‘global exclusive’ for the 7th annual Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Ireland™ Campaign. 

Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer - 11th Annual Conference

EDI members Dympna Watson and Marie Ennis attended this conference in Orlando, Florida along with 700 other women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 45.for a unique weekend of learning and networking.

EDI welcomes commitment to extending age range for BreastCheck in Programme for Government 

The Government for National Recovery 2011-2016 agreed by Fine Gael and the Labour Party includes a commitment to extending the age range for BreastCheck to women aged 65 to 69.

This is very welcome news and EDI will be calling for its implementation as soon as possible.

Specialist Breast Centres leaflet updated

Election 2011

EDI wrote to all party health spokespersons to tell them about our electoral demands. Read the letter!

Advocacy Training Course - November 2010 - Milan

EDI Committee member Eithne Weymes attended the course and describes how she got on.

BreastCheck Programme Report 2009-2010 - Good News and Bad News

The recently published BreastCheck Programme report for 2009 -2010 provides us with encouraging statistics. During the period covered BreastCheck screened 121,160 women between the ages of 50 and 64, detecting 845 breast cancers. 75.7% of women invited for screening accepted their invitation, well above the target of 70% and very good by international standards.

This is a credit to BreastCheck's promotional efforts. Judging from feedback our EDI leaflet - 9 things you should know about breast cancer -  has also increased awareness among women of the importance of taking up screening invitations.

Further good news is that the national expansion is almost complete and that in accordance with the National Cancer Control Strategy and the European Commission's recommendation, BreastCheck plans to extend the screening age to 69.

The bad news is that current resources will not allow for the fulfilment of this plan. EDI will continue to campaign for resources to be made available and will make it an issue in the forthcoming election.  It is not acceptable given that the risk for women gets higher as they get older - a risk of 1 in 13 for women aged 65 to 69, for example.

EDI hosts Breast Health Day lunch in Leinster House

Europa Donna Ireland hosted a lunch in Leinster House for women TDs and Senators on Wednesday 13 October. The lunch marked Breast Health Day and was an opportunity to brief the representatives on EDI’s aims and achievements.

Europa Donna Ireland calls for licensing for private hospital treating breast cancer

EDI  urged Mary Harney TD to expedite as much as possible the introduction of inspection and licensing for private hospitals treating breast cancer patients.

Breast Health Day 15 October 2010

Taking exercise and being physically active

+ keeping a normal body weight

+ eating a healthy diet can help protect your breast health!

As part of this campaign we encouraged and liaised with groups nationwide to promote local activities. In Dublin, EDI hosted the Anna Livia Mile Walk starting at the O2, crossing the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and finishing with warm-down exercises with Marie Murphy.  See more  photos

Breast Cancer Advocacy Leader Conference

The European Breast Cancer Coalition held its first Breast Cancer Advocacy Leader Conference in 2010 for national representatives of its 45 member countries. The conference was supported by the European Union, in the framework of the Public Health Programme.

Christine Murphy-Whyte

We at Europa Donna Ireland are deeply saddened at the loss of our Chairperson, Christine Murphy-Whyte, who died on 20 August, aged 58.

EDI agm 2010 and Information Session

Our 2010 AGM was followed by an Information Session on "Exercise and Breast Cancer"   featuring Charlotte Coleman Smith of the Plurabelle Paddlers, and Marie Murphy, ex-Olympian marathon runner and sports nutritionist.

Leaflet wins award!

9 things you should know about breast cancer  was the joint winner of the Crystal Clear Health Literacy Awards for Best Project in the Community or in a Social Setting. The project was developed in response to findings that women from disadvantaged areas are less likely to access screening and treatment benefits associated with earlier detection and increased survival for breast cancer. 

HIQA Report 2010

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published its national report into the quality and safety of symptomatic breast disease services in Ireland and eight local hospital reports of the designated centres. The Authority reported that significant progress had been made in providing high quality and safe services, though improvements were needed to make this sustainable.
 

Tory Burch Tote Bag in Aid of Fashion Targets Breast Cancer™ Ireland

Tory Burch Tote BagBrown Thomas teamed up with New York Designer Tory Burch to create a global exclusive for the 2010 Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Ireland Campaign.  The designer bag retailed for €45 and all proceeds raised went to Action Breast Cancer (a programme of the Irish Cancer Society) and Europa Donna Ireland (raising awareness of breast cancer issues in Ireland).

The Declaration on the fight against breast cancer in the European Union has been approved - Thanks to everyone for your support!

The written Declaration on Breast Cancer has been approved! It called for the implementation of measures across Europe to battle this disease.

9th EUROPA DONNA Pan-European Conference, Stockholm

This conference was a chance to meet both breast cancer experts and women with personal experience of breast cancer from many European countries.

9 things you should know about breast cancer

Europa Donna Ireland launched a leaflet on 5 October highlighting 9 things every woman in Ireland should know about breast cancer. The leaflet was launched by Minister Mary Harney and it was delivered to three quarters of a million households around the country. Download the leaflet (478 KB)

LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit Dublin

The Lance Armstrong Foundation LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit took place in Dublin from August 24th – 26th 2009. The Summit convened world leaders, advocates and representatives from non-profits and corporations.