This article is from page 2 of the 2011-02-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
A KILRUSH widower has told how his late wife received a “confidential” letter from Breastcheck last week, inviting her for screening, ten years to the day after her sudden death.
Nora Ann Comerford died in her sleep on February 17, 2001.
On February 17, 2011 a letter arrived addressed to the deceased mother and wife marked “Strictly Private and Confidential, Strictly Addressee Only”.
Her husband Brian said he was shocked to see any post arrive for his late wife, especially on her tenth anniversary.
“Naturally, I assumed, it was one of the Spanish Lottery Scams. I open it and it reads: “Dear Ms Comerford, I would like to welcome you to BreastCheck,” he said.
The letter was informing Ms Comerford that her appointment for breast cancer screening would arrive in the post.
It also explained that the national cancer screening service could have got her name, address and date of birth from several Government agencies and health insurance records including the Department of Social and Family Affairs (now called the Department of Social Protection), the General Medical Services and private health insurance companies.
“While we make every effort to en- sure that the Breastcheck population register is accurate, there are rare instances where errors may occur,” the letter said.
Mr Comerford, who once worked for the Department of Social Welfare, said that he found it amazing that his wife was still on any register at this time, as he had removed her name from the register of electors, had registered her death and a bereavement grant had been paid out on her death.
“If they can get this wrong after ten years there has to be a lot more,” he said.
A spokesperson from BreastCheck said she could appreciate how distressing this would be for any fam- ily, but added such occurrences are extremely rare.
She said as there is no national database of births and deaths, BreastCheck relies on data from other agencies.
“Unfortunately we can only confirm accuracy by sending a letter,” she said.
A national register of deaths was created in 2004, six years after Ms Comerford’s death.
BreastCheck finally began routinly screening women for breast cancer from September 27 last year, 12 years after it was first set up.
The National Cancer Screening Service provides women aged 50 to 64 with free mammograms.