Last week, Lisa Wilkinson told Australia that she felt “like a fraud”.
After working as an ambassador for National Breast Cancer Foundation for almost 10 years, the 53-year-old Today host revealed that she was well overdue for a mammogram.
“I know how guilty I have been feeling. I felt like a fraud,” Lisa Wilkinson said. “I have been telling women for years that they have to go out and be breast aware and I haven’t been. “Three years ago I had my last one. I do regular hand checks but you have to have a mammogram to make sure you’re really covering it off.”
So this morning on Today, Lisa and her 48-year-old co-host Georgie Gardner both had a mammogram – live on air.
Wilkinson decided to have the mammogram after hearing the story of Amy Robach – a Good Morning America host who had a mammogram on air only to discover she had breast cancer. After hearing the news of Robach, who had a double mastectomy in the wake of her diagnosis, Wilkinson tweeted:
The story that has inspired me to stop procrastinating & have a mammogram live on @thetodayshowhttp://t.co/B6VGtlbJG2#today9@NBCFAus
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) November 13, 2013
According to the Breast Screen Australia website, free mammograms are offered to women over the age of 40 – but not recommended to people under the age of 40. They suggest women aged 50-69 have mammograms every two years to detect breast cancer early.
Top Comments
The display of a medical procedure on-the-air, as in Wilkinson's case, is again the latest strategy to crusade for women to get regular mammograms. But... does it remove the sound but inconvenient facts against mammography (see the e-book "The Mammogram Myth: The Independent Investigation Of Mammography The Medical Profession Doesn't Want You To Know About" by Rolf Hefti)?
Will Karl undergo a prostrate exam on national TV now ???