Breast cancer in Hong Kong: how self-examinations and ‘getting the damn mammogram’ can help save your life

For Petula Kincaid, November was getting off to a good start. One year into a job she loved as managing director of a lifestyle magazine, and just back from a dream holiday in Vietnam she had every reason to think her 54th year would be one of the best.

Then, she says, “I spotted something that looked a bit strange”. A lump in her breast, she says, “just appeared out of nowhere”.

That was on a Friday. Come Monday morning she was at her doctor’s office. By the end of the day she had her diagnosis: stage 2B breast cancer. That “strange something” she found was an aggressive tumour, already four centimetres long.

“You’re just in total shock. You’re numb,” Kincaid remembers. “Then you have to go home. When I told my husband, it looked like his whole world had fallen apart. So you’re dealing with yourself, but you’re also dealing with your loved ones, and telling them, and watching their little faces fall apart.”

As alone as Kincaid likely felt in that doctor’s office, her experience is chillingly common in Hong Kong. One out of every 15 women in Hong Kong will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In 2016, there were 4,123 new breast cancer cases in the city.

Hong Kong is fortunate to have comprehensive, state-of-the-art medical care, but the most powerful weapon against breast cancer is knowledge. The earlier cancer is caught and diagnosed, the easier it is to treat, and the more likely the sufferer is to survive.