music school founder and owner, live music connector, breast cancer rebel, mom of three
Toronto, Ontario
Joined March 2011
- Tweets633
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- Followers107
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shira farber retweeted
If you live in Ontario, you can book your #mammogram without a requisition from your doctor. Call the #Ontario breast screening program today 1-800-668-9304. Thank you to @OAR for this amazing video and all the advocacy that helped bring this lifesaving change about #ONPOLI
shira farber retweeted
It’s essential that the patient voice be heard in these conversations. These women were harmed by the guidelines, and yet @cantaskforce thinks that they don’t need to be updated.
They need to look at the outcome of the guidelines, not just randomized trials.
It was an honour to testify to the Standing Committee on the Status Of Women. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the misinformation given to healthcare providers and the public on breast cancer screening. As a country, we can do the right thing and act now. @markhollandlib it's time to suspend the breast screening guidelines. With every passing day, we're allowing later stage diagnoses to occur and Cdn women to suffer needlessly #cdnpoli
shira farber retweeted
And here we are finally !! #screening at 40 through the Ontario breast screening program !
Last year, our government made a historic announcement to lower the age of eligibility for self-referral for publicly funded mammograms.
Starting today, if you are over the age of 40, you can self-refer for a mammogram and access the care you need sooner.
news.ontario.ca/en/release/1…
shira farber retweeted
Already happening. Just look at the stories on densebreastscanada.ca
Women denied requisitions in their 40s, and diagnosed with advanced cancers. Also women not told about their breast density and/or denied supplemental screening, and diagnosed with avoidable advanced cancers.
Nope. The Key Takeaway is don’t screen women 40-49.
“we suggest not to systematically screen with mammography”
The rhetoric around personal choice contradicts what you know to be true. Family doctors adhering to @cantaskforce will talk their patients out of screening.
shira farber retweeted
Would be interesting to know how many Canadian family doctors actually have/make time to "objectively consider" the science of TF recos. My guess is they "trust" TF as an informing body, therefore sentencing patients to later-stage diagnoses or death. @mbndp @UAsagwara @WabKinew
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shira farber retweeted
Nope. The Key Takeaway is don’t screen women 40-49.
“we suggest not to systematically screen with mammography”
The rhetoric around personal choice contradicts what you know to be true. Family doctors adhering to @cantaskforce will talk their patients out of screening.
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shira farber retweeted
In Canada 17% BC in White and 26.3% in Black women are diagnosed at stage III and IV. Canadian age-specific mortality rate for women 40-49 in Black is 1.4x higher than White women. In US the death rate is 40% higher in Black women overall and 2X more under age 50. @Anwilkinson
In response to @cantaskforce post about wanting more research on Black women. @markhollandlib @lisahepfner @YaaraSaks @LeahGazan #cdnpoli
This work has been submitted for publication and has been seen by @CPHA_ACSP and @cantaskforce. The incidence of BC in Black women in Canada is 102.5 and lower than White women 135.7 per 100.000. In the US it's 127.8 vs. 133.7 per 100,000 acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wi… @Anwilkinson
shira farber retweeted
Asking for more evidence specific to black women when there is plenty of evidence that early detection saves lives is part of the “science denial playbook”.
Industries like tobacco and fossil fuels have used this tactic to stall decisions, too.
Expertise and common sense are needed while waiting years to decades for more research.
We know screening decreases mortality from breast cancer. All women, but esp black women should be offered screening at 40.
@markhollandlib @YaaraSaks @LailaGoodridge @MPJulian #cdnpoli
shira farber retweeted
Expertise and common sense are needed while waiting years to decades for more research.
We know screening decreases mortality from breast cancer. All women, but esp black women should be offered screening at 40.
@markhollandlib @YaaraSaks @LailaGoodridge @MPJulian #cdnpoli
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shira farber retweeted
In 🇨🇦 @cantaskforce continues to prioritize old and flawed data. @cantaskforce continues to perpetuate racial disparities by not lowering the screening age to 40. @cantaskforce guidelines lead to needless deaths. @markhollandlib @drsdelliscc @MPJulian @LailaGoodridge #cdnpoli
shira farber retweeted
Thank you to everyone who circulated my post over 315K so that I could find “Angel Natalie”, who saved my life! We had coffee together last Thursday so that I could personally thank her and giver her a great big hug!
calgary.ctvnews.ca/mobile/ca…
Thank you to @CTVCalgary for capturing this!
Check it out!
A stranger saved my life today & has no idea. Please help me find her so I can thank her.
I’m so incredibly grateful to the woman who stopped to ask me if I was OK while sitting on someone’s big rock on their front lawn with my 2 dogs. She convinced me to call 911, she made the call, waited with me for the ambulance to arrive, then walked my dogs home while I went to the hospital by ambulance.
🚑 Her actions today saved my life. 🏥
All I know is that her name is Natalie and she lives in the @MTCouncil neighborhood in @TourismCalgary
Please retweet so I can find her and thank her.
Is this a farce? The form they created is not user friendly and their campaign has shifted to health providers, not patients, families and CDN women, as they initially claimed. #cdnpoli @markhollandlib @YaaraSaks @lisahepfner @LeahGazan @ellynjane
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shira farber retweeted
I think @MartinYaffe has the best analogy I’ve heard so far:
“If a Canadian wide-body jet were to crash because of maintenance problems, killing all 400 people on board, it would be seen as a national disaster and would occupy the news for weeks. If this happened each year, it would be unthinkable. But 400 is approximately the number of women in Canada who can be expected to die of breast cancer every year if screening for women in their 40s is cut back.”(*)
(*) Source: policyoptions.irpp.org/magaz…
This incredible woman is fighting stage 4 breast cancer and suffering the unimaginable.
How many more of us need to fall through the cracks because of nonsensical guidelines? #40not50
#cdnpoli @DFisman @markhollandlib @CFPC_e @GovCanHealth
Did you know that 5 (of the 66) sources listed in the @cantaskforce’s proposed breast cancer screening guidelines’ bibliography is using research data that is older than I am?!? 😱 Hint: I’m no longer in my 40s!!!
Here is a link to the brief I submitted to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health explaining why I think their proposed guidelines continue to put Canadian women’s lives at risk. ourcommons.ca/Content/Commit…
I’m not sure how anyone thinks that breast cancer research data pre-dating the year 2000 is still relevant in today’s society.
#ScreenBetterCanada
@PHAC_GC
@GovCanHealth
@CAMO_ACom
@densebreastscdn
@cantaskforce
@CFPC_e
@CWIMorg
@CARadiologists
@CanadaSBI
@canadianPM
@markhollandlib
@YaaraSaks
@MarciIen
@sylviajonesMPP
@DonDavies
@LisaHepfner
@MarieFrRenaud
@drsdelliscc
@AdrianaLaGrange
@jenniedale
@DrPaulaGordon
@JeanSeely
@ShielaAppavoo
@MDiToDID
@DrWesleyBlock
@nightshiftMD
@DrJacobsRad
@Anwilkinson
@DrIfyMcKerlie
@YYCrad2016
shira farber retweeted
@cantaskforce If racialized women tend to be diagnosed at younger ages than white women, esp. in the 40’s and mortality is higher in Black women, help us understand why you recommend not screening at age 40 but instead shared decision making? Not realistic is it? It’s unethical !
shira farber retweeted
The US used 'new and inclusive science' in lowering the screening age to 40. Yet @cantaskforce does not recommend screening in the 40s.
In 🇨🇦 ~600 women die every year and thousands continue to suffer because of later stage diagnoses. The US acted to save lives.@markhollandlib
Is this a joke? Your guidelines are why racialized young women have their cancers detected too late. There. Saved you the research that already exists but that you choose to ignore. @LeahGazan @ellynjane @markhollandlib @ShielaAppavoo #cdnpoli