Breast cancer, a mural of Sant’Agata in Brescia to promote prevention
Many, large murals, which appear on the buildings and walls of the cities. They all depict different versions of the same woman, Saint Agatha, who has become a secular symbol of breast cancer prevention. It is the Europa Donna Italia campaign, created to promote participation in mammography screening, and which in recent days has also touched the city of Brescia.
The screening campaign
The project is called “Every breast has a story, screening can tell it to you”: it has already seen Foggia, Milan and Bergamo as protagonists. In Brescia, the surrounding wall of the Spedali Civili, a symbolic place of prevention in the city, was chosen for the location of the mural, thanks to the collaboration of ATS, ASST and the Europa councilor Donna Nini Ferrari. The street artist Maz-wioimaz (Mario Mazzoldi, Stradedarts- Urban Gallery Milan, here is the video of the creation). “Early diagnosis is essential to intercept the disease in time: launching this type of message in places frequented by women is a strong element of the project, as is the teamwork that allowed us to carry it out – declared the Europa Donna associations Italy and ESA. Two other associations in the network are also present in Brescia: Ri.Pre.Sa and Cuore di Donna.
How to change screening
The initiative is aimed simultaneously at women and institutions. The requests for the latter are mainly three:
1- updating and remodulating the message and the methods of delivery of the invitation and the result, in order to significantly increase compliance with mammography screening.
2 – systematically check familiarity at first access; that is, making women more aware and proactive towards the need to carry out screening, also explaining concepts such as familiarity and dense breasts.
3 – standardize screening from 45 to 74 years in all regions, which translates into monitoring whether regional uniformity has been achieved, by virtue of the fact that the extension of the 45-74 age group is already part of the National Plan of Prevention.
The campaign, created with the non-conditional contribution of Bayer, Gilead and Lilly, sees the support of the scientific community, including SIRM, GISMa, ONS, AITeRS, AIOM Foundation and Senonetwork. In the near future it will arrive in other cities in Lombardy, and then continue in other regions, starting with Lazio, Piedmont and Puglia.
