Breast cancer site needs support.

[Callisto]

Hi all, found the following email in my inbox this morning and thought that you would all like to see it too. I don't think it is a scam, but if so can someone please let me know so we can get the thread deleted? Thanks.

Anyway here it is:

'Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
breastcancersite

AGAIN , PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS TO TELL 10 TODAY'

Hi Callisto,

It's not a scam - it's been around for while.

Good link - I've clicked!

Oh good, it looked legit but you can never tell these days.

I know what you mean.

Done and bumped

Hm. I really, really don't like this website.

It's from the US, and while I think it's genuine, why would UK mothers want to support the US private health care system? It also promotes the use of mammography to women who would not necessarily benefit from them - in the UK, routine, NHS mammograms are not given to younger women because the clinical evidence is clear enough that it does not benefit this age group.

So, just asking people to think first!

sorry tiktok, wasn't thinking, saw breast cancer site and always want to help as my Mum has it but didn't look at the detail sufficiently

I can't really see a problem. I didn't realise it was an american site but I hardly think clicking a link to enable an american women without healthcare cover to have a mammogram is supporting the US private healthcare system.

The following is taken from the site's faq section:

'Provision of free mammograms is carried out through the National Breast Cancer Foundation and paid for by The Breast Cancer Site's sponsors... The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc., founded in 1991, is a nonprofit charitable foundation whose primary purpose is to provide continuing public education on the early detection of breast cancer and free to low-cost mammography screenings to individuals and organizations, most particularly, minorities, low-income, homeless, and working poor women. NBCF does not make grants for mammograms directly to individuals. They give grants directly through designated programs for homeless, battered, and low-income women in inner city neighborhoods.'

Callisto, I do see a problem. The doctors offering mammograms to women who do not need them will get paid to do so - that's where the money is going.

But if you select the Hunger Site on the left hand side, aren't they OK?

I know that no organisation is perfect, but I thought that the Hunger Site had a good reputation ages ago. I used to use it but had forgotten about it after changing computer and losing my old favourites list! Any-one know better?

To be honest, I don't care if some US doctor gets some extra cash in his pocket because I bothered to take 5 seconds a day to click on a web page.

If that same 5 secs a day can save even 1 woman from dying of breast cancer, no matter which country she lives in, then I have done a good job.

Sorry Tiktok, I still don't understand why that is a problem. Surely a woman getting a mammogram who couldn't otherwise afford one is a good thing regardless of whether the doctor is paid. I imagine that the NHS docs get paid per mammogram too - it certainly isn't 'free'.

It's a question of whether the mammogram is a clinical need, Calisto....it is not a neutral thing. Mammograms given to age groups which do not need them bring their own risks. There is controversy in the UK about routine mammograms for older women ie whether they do more harm than good. But no one in the UK argues that women in younger age groups ie those under 50 ought to have routine mammography screening - and yet this is what the Breast Cancer site is raising money for. Read the site - they want women under 50 to have routine screening.

US doctors have a vested interest in increasing routine screening.

Well, the cynic in me says that the NHS has a vested interest in NOT screening anyone under the age of 50. I don't know the first thing about whether a mammogram may do more damage but I do know that breast cancer rates are dropping all the time in the UK and I am sure this is partly down to routine screening. I can see your point, though.