Like many women in Barnet, I was most concerned to read about the delays in breast screening highlighted in your paper ("Women forced to wait for free screenings", Times Series, March 6).

I am due for my three-yearly mammogram and it looks as if I may wait up to another ten months for this. I am not at high risk, but then 90 per cent of breast cancer occurs in women who have no family history of the disease. So one still has an uneasy feeling about what might be lurking there.

At a time when breast cancer charities and the NHS Breast Screening Programme are campaigning to increase the number of women taking up their invitation for screening, extending the waiting time sends out the negative message that it's not important if you don't take up your invitation, because ten months here or there doesn't matter.

Early diagnosis gives the best chance of survival, which is the whole point of the screening programme. Ten months here or there does matter.

From April 1 the age of women eligible for screening will be 47 to 73 years, and women beyond this age can still request screening. What assurances do women in Barnet have that the service will be able to cope, or will we see waiting times stretching out even further?

Advising women to "go private" is also not the answer. It clearly discriminates against those who cannot afford it and, if you have a private mammogram, the results will not be part of your record with the NHS screening programme. It also makes a mockery of the statistics and any research into the effectiveness of the programme. Women who have a private mammogram this month will not respond to the NHS invitation in several months' time. They will have been deemed to have "missed" their mammogram, sending the compliance rates tumbling even further.

Screening is incredibly important but it is also necessary for women to be breast aware - knowing how your breasts look and feel normally so you can see your doctor if anything changes is very important. Our NHS breast screening programme is widely admired and has saved lives - but only if women are screened effectively and regularly.

Pamela Goldberg, chief executive, Breast Cancer Campaign