From its humble beginnings at the old Gold Coast Hospital to the present-day service spanning the city and beyond, there’s been one constant at BreastScreen Gold Coast — Dr Lesley Robertson.
BreastScreen first began on the Gold Coast in 1991, working from a single room in the hospital’s X-Ray Department.
In 1992 the service moved to a dedicated clinic at Little High Street in Southport, and in 1994 to a larger premises at High Street where it still operates as one of four permanent BreastScreen clinics across the Gold Coast.
Dr Robertson said the addition of the mobile BreastScreen van, with its regular clinics in regional areas like Mount Tamborine, Beaudesert and Jimboomba, was another huge milestone for the service.
“We gradually increased the screening numbers each year … and we really tried hard to make it comfortable for women,” Dr Robertson said.
“We looked hard at the areas where women weren’t coming for mammograms and really concentrated on those suburbs and those people to encourage them in.”
Lauded by her colleagues as one of the driving forces behind BreastScreen’s expansion and success on the Gold Coast, Dr Robertson said it had been her interactions with staff that had kept her with the service for more than three decades.
“First of all, I always enjoyed the work,” she said.
“But the staff have been great. They’ve all been truly decent people, nice people, good people, clever and bright people, and I could always see their heart was in breast screening.”
Dr Robertson knew from the beginning that working with BreastScreen would sometimes be challenging, but she learned to constantly remind herself about the many positives of the work.
“When you see people with advanced breast cancers it is hard, but you have to keep thinking ‘we are doing good things for people’,” she said.
“It is emotional at times, but you learn to get used to that because if you’re not holding it together in front of a patient then they’re going to become more distressed.”
Along with huge differences in public perceptions and awareness of breast cancer, Dr Robertson said advances in technology were among the most marked changes between the early days of the service and now.
“Going from charts to having everything computerised — we used to have films where now we have these beautiful computer screens where you can enlarge things and look back easily,” she said.
“Loading those films used to take so long and now you can see in an instant what someone’s mammogram looked like four years ago, eight years ago, and compare.
“It’s made us much better at picking up breast cancers … it’s more efficient and we’re certainly using less storage space without all the reams and reams of paperwork around the place.”
Now retired, Dr Robertson said she was looking forward to spending more time with her children and grandchildren, reading, and increasing her efforts with the charitable work she and her husband do with the Global Development Group in Cambodia.
“In the past we generally only got to stay for a week, so we’ll be able to stay longer over there,” she said.
“It’s very rewarding work we do there so we’ll be on a better timeframe now.”
Congratulations on an astounding career, Dr Robertson. Thank you for all you have done.