The president of Lions Clubs International was in Chilliwack on Thursday (March 14) to thank local clubs for their “outstanding” service and for purchasing a mammography machine for Chilliwack General Hospital.
Patti Hill, from Edmonton, stepped inside the mammography department, along with several local Lions Club members, to see the state-of-the-art machine which was paid for with a $409,400 donation from six clubs in Chilliwack, Agassiz-Harrison and Hope.
“Here at the Chilliwack hospital, the local Lions Clubs have had a great impact both on the eye centre and now on mammography,” Hill said.
The mammography machine — named Francine as it was made in France — was the hospital’s second major Lions-funded project in the last few years (the previous one being a $600,000 eye care centre).
The purchase was made possible thanks to Chilliwack Dogwood Monarch Lions, Chilliwack Lions Club, Mount Cheam Lions Charitable Society, Agassiz-Harrison Lions Club, Chilliwack Steller’s Jay Lions Club, and Hope Lions Club.
The Lions Club International Foundation pitched in $129,000 towards the cost, and the project was in partnership with the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation.
READ MORE: Chilliwack Lions raise $600,000 for eye care centre at CGH
“It’s a wonderful machine. We really like it,” said Stacey Day, medical radiation technologist at CGH. “The quality of care we are able to provide for our patients here in Chilliwack is top-notch now.”
She called it a “top-of-the-line” machine while showing Hill and local Lions how it worked on March 14.
Francine has a greater range of motion than the previous mammography machine, making it more accessible for those with mobility issues. Its high-quality imaging is like night and day compared to the old machine, Day added.
It’s also more ergonomic for the technician, and has special breast paddles including one that does biopsies. It can be raised up quite high, lowered right to the ground, and is designed so a patient can sit in a chair, if necessary, while having a mammogram.
Day said about 98 per cent of the patients have said getting a mammogram done on the new machine is much more comfortable than the old one.
“Almost every single patient has said they like this machine better. Almost nobody gets pain,” Day said.
About 10 per cent of patients that have mammograms at CGH are men, and about one per cent of all breast cancers are found in male patients.
Well aware that breast cancer can be detected in men, the mammography room was purposely decorated to be more welcoming to male patients. Rather than pink walls, they are green-blue and a large photograph of a serene Lindeman Lake hangs on one wall.
“Lions have the opportunity, not only to fund equipment and to help provide service, but to open up conversations about health,” Hill said.
She is the second woman to hold the position of international Lions’ president and the sixth Canadian. In this role, Hill oversees the world’s largest service organization, with approximately 1.4 million members in 200 countries and geographical regions.
The local Lions members said that it was a “great honour” for them to host a sitting international president, and that it was the first time such an event has been held in the area.
