Cancer alert for women Breasts must be checked once a month

MORE than one in four Irish women never check their breasts for symptoms of breast cancer, the Irish Cancer Society has warned.

Some 43% of women check their breasts just once a year, less often or never, although early detection is crucial to improving breast cancer sufferers’ survival rates, according to Action Breast Cancer project leader Abby Langtry.

Research has shown that three-quarters of Irish women diagnosed with breast cancer found the lump themselves.