Steve Herring, President of the Society and College of Radiographers, this month paid a visit to Northern Ireland to hear about the work done by charity Action Cancer House.
Action Cancer House is Northern Ireland’s leading local cancer charity, with the mission to save lives and support local people through cancer awareness, prevention, detection and support.
It is also the only charity in the UK and Ireland to offer breast screening to women aged 40-49 and 70 plus who fall outside the NHS screening age range (50-70).
The charity has a long history of innovation, being the first breast screening service in Northern Ireland in 1978 (10 years ahead of the NHS), and the first in Ireland to launch full field digital mammography screening in 2006.
Their radiographers screen around 11,000 women each year, detecting on average six breast cancers for every 1,000 women screened.
During the visit, Steve met with the consultant and advanced practice radiographers working at the charity, and acknowledged the unique and pivotal work they do.
He said: “The work you are doing out in the community supporting women and all those other groups of men and women living with or affected by cancer is truly inspirational.”
Joanna Currie, Consultant Radiographer at Action Cancer said: “We were honoured to have Steve visit us at Action Cancer.
“The opportunity allowed us to show Steve the unique nature of what Action Cancer does. It gave us a forum to discuss ideas and strategies to promote the radiography profession across Northern Ireland.
“In a dynamic and exciting era for radiography, working together we can achieve so much”.