![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/goodswimmer-profile.JPG\")
An undated photo of Barbara Goodswimmer. (Submitted by Barbara Goodswimmer)<\/p>\nA mobile mammography service currently making the rounds throughout rural communities in northwestern Alberta is saving lives by making people more comfortable with getting tested, advocates say.<\/p>\n
Barbara Goodswimmer\u00a0told CBC News it was almost five years ago that the service played a profound role in her life.<\/p>\n
“That’s what saved my life,” said Goodswimmer, whose Cree name is Waschascoos, meaning little muskrat. “It chokes me up.”<\/p>\n
An elder of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, the 68-year-old woman said she was diagnosed at the clinic with Stage 4\u00a0invasive ductal carcinoma, a type of breast cancer.<\/p>\n
Goodswimmer\u00a0underwent a total mastectomy and will celebrate\u00a0her five-year anniversary of being cancer-free this December.<\/p>\n
“If I didn’t decide to come\u00a0\u2026\u00a0I wouldn’t be here today. So I’m very thankful,” she said.<\/p>\n
An undated photo of Barbara Goodswimmer. (Submitted by Barbara Goodswimmer)<\/p>\n
The screen test program, run by Primary Care Alberta, provides breast cancer screening to people between the ages of 45 to 74.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It recently travelled to Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation and Valleyview, and will set up next week in northwest Alberta hamlet of Hythe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘It’s not a scary waiting room’<\/p>\n
Goodswimmer said there are people in her community who have had negative or\u00a0racist experiences when accessing the health-care system, and that many are also coping with\u00a0historical trauma from residential schools.<\/p>\n
She believes\u00a0these factors all play significant roles in why some Indigenous women are hesitant to get screened. But Goodswimmer suggested\u00a0the mobile clinic can help\u00a0address these challenges.<\/p>\n
“You were made to feel very comfortable,” she\u00a0said of her own experience in the clinic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s all painted with flowers. It’s a cheery thing to look at. It’s not a scary waiting room.”<\/p>\n
Goodswimmer\u00a0noted that the mobile clinic can save some people\u00a0from a longer trip to a city to get tested.<\/p>\n
“It makes a big difference,” she said. “I know a lot of women who go to these mobile units \u2026 those are women who wouldn’t normally go to Grande Prairie to get this done. “<\/p>\n
Awareness and education<\/p>\n
Josie Nepinak, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, said the barriers to health care facing Indigenous people can increase the risk\u00a0of a late diagnosis, causing a higher chance of poor outcomes for Indigenous women, especially in remote parts of the country.<\/p>\n
“A big part of this involves awareness\u00a0and education around breast and health care,” said Nepinak, who is Anishinaabe from Treaty 4 territory in northwestern Manitoba.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In the rural and remote communities, quite often that is not a priority in some of the health-care providers or practitioners…Because quite often, it might be more crisis management in health-care as opposed to prevention.”<\/p>\n
Nepinak said a\u00a0trauma-informed, culturally safe program with community educators is necessary\u00a0to take the “unknown”\u00a0out of the experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She pointed out that there are\u00a0often language barriers for\u00a0Indigenous communities\u00a0where English is a second language.<\/p>\n
“I see it as multi-generational,” Nepinak said. “If you can save one woman with breast exams, you will pass that knowledge and that awareness to your children.<\/p>\n
“I think there’s still that fear of the medical system, fear of the unknown\u00a0around what this machine is or what it’s going to do to my body \u2014 even of the person who actually works the machine. [Are they going] to be kind, to be thoughtful, to be trauma-informed?”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nepinak said there is added stigma for residential school survivors trying to navigate the health-care system. She, her mother and her grandmother are all residential school survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“My mother never got a breast mammogram, that I am aware of, even though we told her to many times,” she said. “She didn’t have breast cancer but she was still so afraid and ashamed of her body.<\/p>\n
“Clinics must be trauma-informed and culturally safe. This is in my community. I\u00a0recognize people. I see people who look like me. I see people who speak the same language. That is so important.”<\/p>\n
Since her bout with cancer, Goodswimmer is encouraging other Indigenous women\u00a0who might be apprehensive about the\u00a0exam to get tested.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mammography-1.JPG\")
Barbara Goodswimmer (centre-left) is seen spending time with her grandchildren as she approaches her five-year anniversary of being cancer-free. (Submitted by Barbara Goodswimmer)<\/p>\n
“It’s peace of mind, and saving your life,” she said. “That’s the bottom line. It’s going to save your life.”<\/p>\n
“I’m one of those people. If I didn’t get it done, I wouldn’t be here \u2014 and I get to be. I get to love up my family. So for me, it offers hope.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mobile mammography service currently making the rounds throughout rural communities in northwestern Alberta is saving lives by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-148722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}