'Please take the test that could save your life'

A woman who was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer after a routine mammogram has urged others to take up the offer of screening.

Sarah Walton, 53, from Bingley, said she was "floored" to be told she had cancer, despite the fact she has no family history of the disease and could feel no lump.

The latest figures show that just 60% of those in the Bradford District and Craven take up the offer of breast cancer screening.

Ms Walton said: "I am lucky it was caught and I am lucky I went for the mammogram and I am lucky that I had such amazing treatment."

A mammogram is an X-ray of breast tissue which detects abnormalities. The procedure takes about 20 minutes.

The NHS invites women for routine screening every three years between the ages of 50 and 71.

Ms Walton was 52 when she went to a mobile clinic in Bingley and a small lump she could not feel with her fingers was picked up near her armpit.

The cancer tumour was small and it had not spread.

She said: "I was lucky it was caught so early because it made my treatment as straightforward as it could be.

"It was a case of taking it out and radiotherapy."

According to the most recent figures from NHS England, the Pennine Breast Screening Unit, which covers Bradford, Calderdale, Airedale and Kirklees has the lowest uptake levels in the North East and Yorkshire and the fourth lowest uptake rate in England.

Across the Pennine area just 61.6% of women aged between 50 and 71 invited for a screening went for a mammogram.

Across the whole of England the uptake rate was 70.5%.

Barnsley had one of the highest uptake rates in the country at 77%.

Julie Hodgins, radiographer and health promotion specialist at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, said: "Personally I think because people think they have a choice it is not important.

"We are not trying to force people to take up screening appointments, but these are tests aimed at well women.

"We can make up lots of excuses why we can't make time for ourselves to have well-person check-ups."

Ms Hodgins said some people were nervous about a mammogram because they were worried it would be painful when breast tissue was compressed.

"For the majority, it's a tight squeeze, no big deal," she said.

Ms Hodgins said mammograms could pick up lumps that were too small to be felt.

She said self-examination was also important.

Said said men can also get breast cancer, and they should check their chest once a month ideally, or, if not, once every other month.

Last year more than 16,500 people in England had their breast cancer picked up through screening.

Ms Walton said: "I am really quite keen to say to women, 'just go for your routine mammogram'.

"If you leave it and you don't go, how are you going to feel a year down the line if it has spread to your lymph nodes?

"Don't get me wrong, it's still really treatable if it has spread to your lymph nodes, but that treatment isn't as easy as I went through.

"So don't miss it, that's my message."