A British cancer activist said yesterday that Irish women were in the "best place" possible for the testing and treatment of breast cancer, despite criticism surrounding a recent high-profile mix-up of a patient's breast cancer diagnosis at Cork University Hospital.
Widespread screening and access to powerful cancer drugs had made Ireland a leader in the fight against the disease, said Barbara Clark, then nurse and mother of two who, in 2005, successfully challenged her local health authority on human rights grounds to gain a prescription for the breast cancer drug Herceptin.
The £27,000 (about €39,500) per year treatment is available to all qualifying Irish patients but, until recently, was provided to only a few British women.
"Ireland's got one of the best rates in Europe for success in treating breast cancer," she said. "You have drugs that are simply not available in England, sometimes for years."
Ms Clark was in Dublin to speak at a public information meeting for breast cancer patients and health service workers and to recognise the estimated 12,000 Irish women tested for HER2 cancer status, the type of the disease suffered by Ms Clark and an estimated 20-30 per cent of all breast cancer patients.
HER2 screening began in Ireland in 2000, but reached Britain only earlier this year.
While Ireland's breast cancer mortality rate held steady last year - the first time in recent memory it hadn't increased - an estimated 2,333 Irish women will be diagnosed with the disease this year and more than 600 will die of it.
"In the last few years, services for women with breast cancer have improved, but we still have a long way to go," said Action Breast Cancer spokeswoman Naomi Fitzgibbon.
"At the moment we don't have a universal screening programme, we have half of a screening programme, which we need to increase," Ms Fitzgibbon said.
Still, both women say Ireland is on track in its comprehensive approach to breast cancer, with resources available for diagnosis, treatment and psychological support throughout the State.
"You've got so much going for your health service [in Ireland] that although it doesn't always work, it's still working well for breast cancer," Ms Clark said.
"If there are problems, try to put them right, be proactive instead of sitting there and moaning about it, try to raise awareness of what went wrong. That way things get put right," she said.