Dark October

OCTOBER is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time when women are urged to prioritise their breast health, get screened, and act early. But the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS) has started the month without a functioning mammogram machine, forcing hundreds of women to seek screening elsewhere.

A mammogram is a specialised, low-dose, X-ray image of the breast used to detect early signs of breast cancer, tumours, or cysts before they can be felt by hand. The non-government organisation, which prides itself on providing affordable screenings for women, said its only machine went out of service on August 29, 2026.

Prior fund-raising efforts to replace it before it stopped working have fallen short of the more than $35 million needed to purchase a new machine. Executive director of the JCS, Roshane Reid-Koomson, said the organisation is down but not out, appealing to Jamaicans both locally and internationally to help with replacing the equipment. “I feel very sad to see the mammogram department in darkness and closed, knowing that we are unable to provide the test that we so strongly encourage women to do,” she told the Jamaica Observer.