Sylvia Discusses Her Experience of Breast Screening

I've been for breast screening about four times, and it was in a special clinic. Well, my last one, I felt fine because it was my fourth one, and having been to four previous ones I, you know, I felt relaxed, I was less anxious, you know, and I just hoped for the best. Overall, I think I spent about 15 minutes for the whole appointment, and doing the mammogram was about 7 to 8 minutes really, because at the beginning, you know, they had to prepare you and ask a few questions before you do it. Now the process wasn't too bad because luckily I do have, like, very large ***, you know they're kind of soft and so it was easy for you to, you know, put your breast in and get them to align, you know, with the machine. So I didn't feel as much pain as other people would say they did. So it wasn't that uncomfortable -- even after, there was no pain at all. You know, I just ...also the nurses were very nice, you know. You can sense the caring in their face, you know, the way they smile and everything, so it was reassuring. So I just waited for the letter to come. The letter came, I opened it and it turned out to be fine. I think sometimes, particularly for the first one, and sometimes when people are going for something, you know, for the first time, you're a bit scared. So if you feel you need to take somebody along, you might want to ask a relative, you might want to ask a friend to accompany you just to give you that extra support, because, you know, you never know what the experience would be, no matter how much people tell you, until you get there and sometimes, you know, you're so scared of getting information on something you know you're not sure of. So, if people need that kind of support I think it would help. I mean, looking back, I think I should have done that for the first one, but after that, I think it's okay, you can just go in and do it because you...you gain confidence, with time.