Working at the Royal Flying Doctor Service’s Clive Bishop Medical Centre (CBMC), Primary Health Nurse Belinda Gentle has always encouraged patients to keep up to date with the health checks like mammograms and pap smears.
But in 2022 when a patient turned the tables and asked when Belinda had last had a mammogram, she realised it was time to make an appointment.
Expecting a run of the mill appointment, Belinda went and got checked. She was asked to attend a second appointment due to an abnormality and suggested to bring a support person. An ultrasound revealed an issue and a biopsy was done.
Her ensuing diagnosis of stage 2 breast cancer shocked Belinda, but within weeks she had surgery to remove the cancer and was booked to undergo radiation in Melbourne to complete the treatment.
“It was really strange to me because I didn’t feel sick. To me, you shouldn’t feel as good as what I did. But everyone at work was great. I had to have time off work and when I came back they said ‘no heavy lifting, no doing this, no doing that’. It was great to have that support.”
Thankfully the radiation was a success and 12 months on Belinda is using her experience to encourage others to stay up to date with mammograms and other health checks.
“It’s been a good motivator. Everyone here has gone and got checked, everyone at the hospital has gone and got a mammogram and even my old friends from the Central Coast have gone for mammograms,” she said.
“I ask patients and use my situation as an example. If they can’t say when they last had one, I’ll say to them ‘you need to be quick’. If someone has something, if you find it quick it’s the best way.”
Belinda has always liked to wear colourful scrubs while working, using them as a conversation starter, to help distract anxious patients, especially children, and to make the normally clinical environment more fun.
Since finding the pink scrubs and getting them embroidered with “check your boobies”, Belinda said it has been a great conversation starter. And in October Belinda held a breast cancer awareness morning tea at CBMC, supported by the Broken Hill team, also raised $500.
Belinda said her main message she wants to get out there is that nobody should get complacent with their health.
“Get checked regularly and encourage friends and family to do the same,” she says.
