Whilst governments and professional institutions run the 'official' programmes, in any one country there may also be many 'non-official' initiatives that are run by private individuals and groups. In fact it seems that really anybody who wants to get involved can do so - whether they are qualified or not.

So what are the aims and objectives of these cancer awareness programmes? What is it that these programmes are actually trying to make us more aware of? Is it about the disease and it's treatment? Is it to make sure that women know that they should present to the doctor immediately they find any problem in their breast or are they simply trying to increase the number of women attending screening with Mammography - regardless of whether or not the motive for this might be purely financial?