On a mission to get women in Sarawak access to breast cancer screening and treatment

For the women in rural Sarawak, screening for breast cancer isn't practical: it costs just too much to get to a big specialist hospital. Filepic

As breast cancer awareness month draws to a close, Sarawak healthcare campaigner Agnes Padan is desperately campaigning for women in rural Sarawak to have access to breast cancer screening. For most women in the interiors, it is just too expensive to get themselves checked, or seek further investigations and diagnosis.

“Village clinics do not have the facilities for a breast ultrasound or mammogram for screening. They would have to travel for hours – sometimes seven or nine hours – to get to a specialist hospital.