Dr Carol-Ann Benn has been specialising in breast health for over a decade. Seeing women suffer and wanting to do something to help is what drew her to breast care.

‘€œThere is no other way you can look at it. Being diagnosed with a cancer is a truly awful experience. We are seeing more and more young women developing breast cancer, especially in Indian and Black women. It is very frightening and I am not sure why there is an increase’€, she says.

‘€œI think we must be aware that it is our duty to get education out to everyone. We need to get health awareness into our young girls about condoms, safe sex, about gynae and breast exams. If, by the time the girl is out of school or varsity… if you have instilled that in her, she will encourage her mom, sister and family to go for check-ups’€, Dr Benn adds.

During her early years of medicine, Dr Benn was involved in trauma work, particularly, in the townships. She says it was the sad faces of women who would line up in the queues for emergency breast cancer operations that made her take action.

‘€œI got funding and went overseas and worked in some of the units there and brought breast re-construction back to South Africa’€.

But the concept of breast re-construction was not known in South Africa and it was initially not very well-received. Breast re-construction is a plastic surgery technique that attempts to restore a breast to near normal shape, appearance and size following mastectomy or the removal of the whole breast.

‘€œThe first time I gave a talk in this country on breast re-construction, I was booed off the stage. People were saying ‘€˜women have to live for over a year after their cancer before they deserved the re-construction’€™. And, we said: ‘€˜When men have penile cancer we re-construct. So, why is there this concept with women?’€™ We really pushed it’€.

‘€œSo, now it’€™s the norm. One in two of my patients in the provincial unit are re-constructed. That is amazing. And 95% of all the patients here at Milpark Breast Care Centre have immediate re-construction post their breast cancer treatment. It is the patient’€™s body not the doctors’€™, says Dr Benn.

Dr Benn advises women not to be complacent, but to come forward if they notice any changes in their breasts. She says if only more women understood that breast cancer is curable, perhaps they would be encouraged to go for regular check-ups.  

‘€œExamine your breast. Sixty percent of women with breast cancer have no risk factors. Don’€™t be complacent. If you feel something, come forward. Ladies over 40 should have mammograms and ultrasound. If you are worried about something and you’€™re being brushed off by your doctor, go for a second opinion. Listen and know your body’€.

Not only does Dr Benn work at her private practice. She also runs a massive breast care unit at Helen Joseph Hospital, a public hospital in Johannesburg, four days a week. In the clinics, she can see up to 200 patients a day. She says this is her way of giving back to the community to make a positive contribution to the country’€™s public health sector.

‘€œIf each doctor in private gave back a morning a week or four hours a week, you would revolutionise provincial health care. Four hours in the greater scheme of someone’€™s week is not a lot – either four hours operating or working in a clinic’€¦ Can you imagine how health care can change?’€ she says.

Dr Benn works six days a week, nearly 12 hours a day. As emotionally and physically exhausting as it may be, she says she wouldn’€™t do anything other than promoting healthy lifestyles for women.  

‘€œI love my work. If you are not passionate about what you do, you need to re-evaluate. I think, for me, that’€™s critical. You must enjoy what you are doing because you spend most of your time at work and if you do not enjoy it, then what are you doing?’€

But, how does she manage to balance out her career and her family time?

‘€œI’€™m very good at delegating. I do nothing except what I am good at. In other words, I never do any shopping. If I do, it is purely for pleasure or we’€™re having someone over for dinner. I help my kids with their home-work or projects. I love spending time with my family as much as I love my job’€, says Dr Benn.