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Cancer surgeon thanks Burt
families
18.02.10
by Kevin Kelly, Inishowen Independent
MONEY raised from a local charity dance will be used
to combat breast cancer in Donegal by searching
medical records in an effort to detect a family
history of the disease. Dr Michael Sugrue,
consultant breast surgeon at Letterkenny General
Hospital was in An Grianán Hotel last Wednesday
night to accept the cheque on behalf of the
Letterkenny Breast Cancer Development Fund from the
McLaughlin and Downey families in Burt.
The monies were raised in memory of Darren Downey
and Gary McLaughlin who where killed in a tragic
road traffic collision last year. Donegal Hospice
and the Letterkenny Breast Cancer Development Fund
where presented with cheques totalling €20,000
following a recent fundraising dance held in
January.
“It is a huge thing for me to accept money from a
community – it is actually quite difficult,” Dr
Sugrue said. “I have four children myself so I can
only imagine that the memories of your boys are very
fresh. I hope I can honour their memories by putting
this money to good use.” |
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“We are looking at the
area in a new way, the concept of family history as
a means of targetting the disease,” Dr Sugrue said.
“There are some families in the region at a higher
risk than others. We are bringing more objectivity
to the family history of patients by using the
existing database of files. |
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We can statistically
evaluate their risk and categorise it as low, high
or extreme.”
“Based on this we can initiate referrals. People who
are at high risk, who may be totally unaware of the
fact, can be identified. This allows us to contact
GPs. The whole secret is to identify patients at the
earliest possible opportunity, get them in and
continue to screen them regularly,” Sugrue added.
According to the doctor one in eight people contract
breast cancer due to their family history. The other
seven can be put down to other factors, but it is
that trackable one-in-eight that the new research
will target.
The plan is to have medical students come to
Letterkenny for the summer months to work on
accessing the files and to use that information as
research. Letterkenny General is the only hospital
in the country to objectively check for breast
cancer currently.
Dr Ann Doherty Callaghan, from the Donegal Hospice
described the breast cancer family-history research
development as “a wonderful step forward” while also
thanking the two families for their great efforts.”
“To survive Donegal Hospice has to pay 20% of its
running costs – a huge sum of money as hospice care
by its nature is very expensive. To keep it going we
have to keep finding funds but thank God people like
yourselves – who have gone through so much pain
yourselves – come through for us. It is quite
something that you were able to raise this amount of
money and I thank you.”
The Letterkenny Breast Development Fund was
presented with €10,000 while the Donegal Hospice
received €11,257. |
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