New television commercials are encouraging women to ‘get the girls out’ and go for their free breast screening. And you’d better listen, because the message is coming from ‘aunties’ Ella Henry and Whetu Fala.

In the ads, Ella and Whetu talk to women and men about why regular breast screening is so important. They explain how breast screening can find really tiny cancers, that can’t be felt. Finding breast cancer early means you have a better chance of beating it.

Sign up here to enrol for your free screening!  

Jacqui Akuhata-Brown from the Ministry of Health’s National Screening Unit says it’s about getting all the ‘girls’ in your life out for their breast screening.

That might be your sister, your aunty, your mother, your cousin, or your friend. Anyone who is aged between 45 and 69 can have free breast screening through BreastScreen Aotearoa.

“And it’s really important to have breast screening every two years, because breast cancers can grow in that time and you want to find them while they are still small.”

She says the new television commercials use humour – an approach that has worked really well for the National Cervical Screening Programme.

“The cervical screening ads are very popular – particularly the one where the ladies are collected in a van and all go off to have their smear tests. We hope the use of humour in the breast screening ads will likewise encourage women to have regular mammograms.”

Women aged between 45 and 69 who are not already part of BreastScreen Aotearoa can register to enrol on-line by going to www.breastscreen.govt.nz, or ringing freephone number 0800 270 200 or 0508 THE GIRLS.

You can see the commercials here.