“Today is a good day” Maria Varela begins her conversation with ABC. It’s the day he turns 43, and also the day he starts receiving massive support for the petition he launched last Friday on Change.org, which has already collected more than 40,000 signatures in just one weekend. … . “I started with just 500, and he’s the one I know, so I’m very happy,” says this woman from La Coruña, who was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer a few months ago. A mother of a 7-year-old little boy, after “a lot of time thinking about it in her head,” Maria had the courage to publish her request so that no woman would ever see herself in her situation again. Demand for everyone, – Mammography examination starting at the age of forty Which would have allowed her to know about her illness in a timely manner.
“Currently societies start at 50 years old, some at 45 years old, but Cases are increasingly occurring in younger women» he says, echoing statements that do not lie. In the age group of 40 to 45 years, apart from routine surveillance tests, approximately 140 cases are diagnosed annually per 100,000 population. And the statistics continue to rise. “About 15 years ago, researchers began to notice a troubling trend: Breast cancer was increasingly being diagnosed in younger women. “We cannot achieve this change and keep the age of the first mammogram at 50 years, a decision that was made at a time when the prevalence of breast cancer in young women was lower,” explains the application signed by the woman from A Coruña.
In your caseThe pain from what was diagnosed as a back problem worsened over the months Until this led to an emergency admission and Maria actually left with the confirmation that she had metastatic cancer. “I went to the doctor with lower back pain and came out with untreated cancer that had already spread to several bones all over my body,” sums up this mother, who, far from giving up, explains that exercise and her son give her the energy she needs to keep the disease at bay. “I thought I was immortal” She reflects, pausing to emphasize that the step she took in suspending her claim meant exposing her family and herself. “I thought about it a lot, but I felt there was a need to make something visible that shouldn’t be like that,” he defends his argument.
“This is a possible and necessary change. “Because if I had been tested earlier, my cancer would have been detected in time and I might have had the option of being cured,” admits the author of the petition, which is in line with those advocated by the international scientific community. In the United States, for example, protocols have raised the starting age for screening to 40 years. In the case of Europe, the new guidelines commit to introducing screening to the age of 45 and extending it to the age of 74, instead of 65, which now marks the end of the year. These controls are currently in effect. The Spanish public health system reserves the first mammogram at age 50 In the case of healthy women with no history. In Maria’s case, there were no conditions in her family that could have put her on guard, and there were no annual checkups to check the late diagnosis. Now, medication and exercise through, He only asks that his son give him “beard kisses.”
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