303 MullenLowe has been appointed by the Cancer Institute NSW to help raise awareness of the importance of free breast screening through BreastScreen NSW.

Many people don’t realise that breast cancer is the most common cancer in NSW women, accounting for 28 per cent of all new cancer diagnoses in women in 2010. One in eight women in the state will develop breast cancer by the age of 85.

303 MullenLowe is tasked with the challenge of making women more aware of this incidence – particularly those aged between 50 and 74, who make up 60 per cent of all breast cancer diagnoses in NSW – and importantly spurring them to have a mammogram.

“There’s an interesting optimism bias that makes many women assume they don’t need to worry about developing breast cancer. We’re looking forward to working with BreastScreen NSW to reverse this bias and prompt women to take action sooner. We hope to make a real difference together,” said Nick Cleaver, CEO of 303 MullenLowe.

303 MullenLowe has launched its first campaign for BreastScreen NSW, called ‘Find the NSW 2000’.

‘Find the NSW 2000’ is a campaign to find these 2000 women in NSW who have breast cancer, but just don’t know it yet because they haven’t had their regular mammograms.

BreastScreen NSW is coordinated across the state by the Cancer Institute NSW. It is part of the national BreastScreen Australia program and is jointly funded by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments. The service aims to detect breast cancer early, when treatment is most successful.