#IamMGH – Meet Rebecca Lo

#IamMGH tells the story of our people. In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we would like you to meet Rebecca Lo, Mammography Technologist, who has been at MGH for more than three years.

"I love working as a technologist, but I didn’t always know that I wanted to do this. In high school I wanted to be a vet and worked at a veterinary clinic doing x-rays – I had no idea that imaging would end up becoming the focus of my career!

I initially started my undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph in human kinetics. I took an anatomy course there and it really made me appreciate the medical sciences. After that, I did a joint program at the University of Toronto and The Michener Institute and received a Bachelor of Science in Medical Radiation Sciences and an Advanced Diploma in Radiological Technology.

At this point I could have chosen to work in any kind of medical imaging such as general radiography, CT or bone mineral density. However, after my 91-year-old grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew I wanted to work in women’s imaging. I did my mammography training through a clinic in Toronto and then came to MGH!

Today, mammography can be quite difficult to get into – there are few spots available and you need to find a workplace that is willing to train you. I consider myself lucky to work in this field. The best part of my job is definitely my patients. With mammography, you can really get to know and be there for your patients. When someone comes for their first mammogram or because they've found a new lump, it can all be very scary.

I do my best to treat those patients like my own family and support them through the exam. If someone does get diagnosed with breast cancer, we’re often with them throughout the whole process including the initial screening, biopsy, before the surgery and the years that follow as they heal.

If there is one thing that I could tell people that I have learned from my role, it is that breast cancer doesn’t discriminate against age. Women are recommended to get a mammogram every one to two years between the ages of 50-74, but that doesn’t mean you should wait until then to start taking care of yourself. Breast cancer can strike at any time and many women don’t even have a family history of it.

So, talk to your doctor, know what to look for and just be aware of what is normal for you when you do self-exams. Mammograms are the gold standard when it comes to breast screening – we want to catch it before you can even feel it. When the time does come for you to start doing regular mammograms, we’ll be right here waiting to help guide you through the process."