New home for screening service in Framlingham

A Suffolk town's once under-threat breast cancer screening service will be helping hundreds of women in August and September thanks to a new community partnership.

The East Suffolk Breast Screening Service’s mobile screening van is visiting Framlingham from August 10 until September 3 and providing free mammograms (x-ray examinations of breasts) to detect early stage cancer.

It comes after the East of England Co-operative Society stepped in and offered a home for the van at its staff car park at the Solar Supermarket on Market Hill.

Judith Berrill, programme manager for the East Suffolk Breast Screening Service and a superintendent radiographer at Ipswich Hospital, said: “The East of England Co-operative Society already provides the breast screening service with sites at Felixstowe, Leiston and Stowmarket and has been extremely helpful by coming to our aid again.
"By providing us with parking space and services in Framlingham women will not have to travel to Woodbridge or Leiston for this important and potentially life-saving service."

English Heritage had kindly housed the van in the town's castle car park for 19 years but is now unable to accommodate the service during their busy visiting season. The future of the service, which helps around 500 women each year, was under threat until the Co-operative Society came forward.

Mrs Berrill said: "The service remains very grateful for English Heritage’s support for the last 19 years.
"Following a public appeal for help the service received more than 20 offers of alternative sites and although most of these proved unsuitable, it was heartened by the support of the community."

The mobile van is part of the national NHS Breast Screening Programme, which invites all women aged between 50 and 70 for screening every three years. It travels and serves women all over east Suffolk. Another van is permanently situated at St Clements Hospital in Ipswich.