About | Dense Breasts Canada | Awareness and Advocacy.

Dense Breasts Canada (DBC) is a non-profit organization, founded in 2016. DBC is made up of dedicated individuals and healthcare professionals who are committed to raising awareness and advocating for optimal breast cancer screening.

Our Goals: Awareness and Advocacy

To increase awareness among the public and healthcare professionals of the risks associated with dense breasts and the importance of screening, starting at age 40 and continuing past 74.

To convince provincial screening programs to provide supplemental screening to women with dense breasts.

To convince the federal government to revise dangerous breast screening guidelines and reform the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

Why we are seeking change.

Optimal breast screening matters: With 30,000 women diagnosed every year in Canada with breast cancer and 5500 deaths, we must do better to ensure all Canadians have the best chance to find cancer early. The status quo has to go.

Early detection of breast cancer saves lives and improves quality of life. Five year survival when diagnosed at Stage 1 is 99.8 percent, but at Stage 4 it is 23%. Early detection also can mean a better chance to avoid chemotherapy, mastectomy and axillary dissection. Canadians need optimal breast cancer screening: annual screening from age 40-49; screening every 1-2 years from age 50 and past 74, as long as a woman is in good health; and additional screening for women with dense breasts.

Breast density matters: Over 3 million women in Canada, over age of 40, have dense breasts. DBC wants to educate women about the importance of knowing and understanding their breast density so they can be proactive in reducing their risk and have informed discussions with their healthcare providers about additional screening.

Meet Our Executive

Jennie Dale

JENNIE DALE
Co-Founder, Executive Director

Jennie is the Executive Director of Dense Breasts Canada (DBC). She volunteers full time for DBC. She lives in Ontario. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014.

She was inspired by the successful advocacy efforts of American organizations, areyoudense.org and densebreast-info.org and Joan Lunden's book "Had I Known." In 2016, Jennie was introduced to Michelle Di Tomaso and both felt strongly that it was wrong to withhold potentially lifesaving information about breast density from women. They founded DBC and as they learned about additional injustices and inequities in breast cancer screening in Canada, the goals and mission expanded. DBC raises awareness and advocates for optimal breast cancer screening.

Jennie teamed up with breast cancer survivors and experts nationwide to advocate for optimal breast screening for all Canadians. Together, they have successfully advocated for almost 20 changes in breast screening practices in provinces and territories.

Successful advocacy has resulted in density notification across the country and many provinces lowering the screening aged from 50 to 40. It has also resulted in an increase in supplemental screening.

Advocacy continues on these goals: all individuals with dense breasts are provided supplemental screening; all individuals are able to self- refer at 40; all individuals in good health are able to self-refer past 74.

Jennie is a firm believer that your postal code should not determine whether breast cancer is detected early.

Jennie collaborates with Canada's leading breast screening experts in advocating on a federal level and meets with Ministers, MPs, and government officials regularly to advocate for necessary revisions to the harmful Canadian Task Force breast cancer screening guidelines and reform of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. They have seen great progress with the Health Minister and all political parties denouncing the 2024 draft guidelines.

Jennie has testified to the Federal Health Committee about breast cancer screening and written numerous briefs. She has published in the Journal Current Oncology. Jennie has also joined forces with experts in many specialties who share similar concerns about their guidelines and is a member of the Coalition for Responsible Health Care Guidelines. She is also a member of the Patient Engagement Working Group for the Canadian Society of Breast Imaging and a patient partner advisor on research being performed at Sunnybrook Hospital.

In 2021, Jennie was named a top 5 finalist in Charity Village's awards in the category of Most Outstanding Impact by a Volunteer.

Michelle Di Tomaso

MICHELLE DI TOMASO
Co-Founder

Michelle is the co-founder of Dense Breasts Canada. She was diagnosed in August 2014 with Stage 2B, Triple Positive Breast Cancer. Over the next two years, she underwent 2 surgeries to remove the cancer, Chemotherapy (A/C, Taxol and Herceptin), Radiation, a Double Mastectomy and 3 unsuccessful reconstructive surgeries, and spent 25 days in the hospital.

She was informed that her cancer diagnosis had been delayed 3 years because she had dense breasts. Had the cancer been caught earlier, the treatment would more than likely have been limited to surgery only.

Michelle is from British Columbia, the first Canadian province where advocacy resulted in density notification to all women, in 2018. In 2019, Michelle continued to advocate successfully to ensure that women in British Columbia with dense breasts had the ability to access screening ultrasound, now paid for by MSP.

After 8 years of successful advocacy, the DBC team's efforts have resulted in all provinces making policy changes regarding density notification. NL will be the last to implement this summer. Michelle is advocating to ensure that women with dense breasts get access to the additional screening they need.

Congratulations to Michelle on being awarded the YWCA Metro Vancouver Woman of Distinction Award 2024 for the Community Champion Category.

Dr. Paula Gordon

Paula B. Gordon, OBC, MD, FRCPC, FSBI

Medical Advisor

Dr. Paula Gordon is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia. She is a passionate clinician, researcher, and educator.

In the 1980’s her research on ultrasound-guided breast biopsies led to it becoming a standard of care worldwide. This procedure enabled accurate diagnosis of breast masses, which had previously required surgery and allowed women to forego surgery for non-cancerous abnormalities.

During her career, Dr. Gordon has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her research in 1995 was the first to show that ultrasound could find cancers missed on mammograms. This has led to a paradigm change in the management of screening women with dense breasts that began in the USA in 2009, but has now spread to Canada, the UK, Asia, Australia and Europe.

She was a member of BC Women’s Health Centre’s Expert Task Force for a Breast Assessment & Diagnostic Partnership Pilot Program in 1996, and worked there until 2020, serving as Medical Director of the Sadie Diamond Breast Program from 2007 to 2019. During that time, she secured funding from The Diamond Foundation and the Provincial Health Services Authority to obtain the first tomosynthesis technology (3D mammography) in BC and to establish the Vancouver Breast Imaging Fellowship, to train the future leaders in breast imaging. She arranged for trainees to rotate through BC Women’s Health Care Centre, BC Cancer, and the office of Dr. Linda Warren & Associates to ensure exposure to multiple experts. Due to the reputation of the program she has also trained self-funded fellows from other provinces, the USA, and the Middle East.

With the acquisition of tomosynthesis, Dr. Gordon arranged for Vancouver to be among the first Canadian sites to join TMIST: the tomosynthesis mammographic imaging screening trial, an FDA-funded multi-centre trial, donating hundreds of hours participating in the planning and preparation of the trial as a Canadian lead-in site.

Dr. Gordon is widely appreciated for her mentoring of medical students, radiology residents, and fellows in breast imaging, as well as teaching her individual patients and the public. She is a popular instructor at "Hands-on workshops" at the Radiologic Society of North America where radiologists learn how to perform needle biopsies and other procedures with ultrasound guidance, and has done so every year since they were first introduced in 1993.

She is a sought-after speaker and moderator and panel member, and has given hundreds of invited lectures locally, nationally, and internationally, as well as participating on and chairing scientific panels throughout North America.

She volunteers as a reviewer for several medical journals, and is a volunteer medical advisor to Dense Breasts Canada, a Canadian patient advocacy group, and an American educational website: Dense Breast Info.

With colleagues from across Canada, she was a founding member of the Canadian Society of Breast Imaging.

Dr. Gordon has volunteered on and chaired dozens of committees:

Member, Lower Mainland Innovation and Integration Fund Committee for Breast Health
Chair, Early Detection Committee, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation 2020 Project
Chair of the Early Detection Committee of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, BC/Yukon Division,
Member, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Breast Cancer Prevention and Risk Assessment Clinic Advisory Board
Chair of the Academic Committee of the Screening Mammography Program of British Columbia,
Co-Chair of the Workforce Committee of the Provincial Breast Health Strategy, and a member of the Steering, Clinical Pathway and Prevention Committees of the Provincial Breast Health Strategy,
Member of the Provincial Radiology Expert Committee, a reviewer for the Canadian Association of Radiology Mammography Accreditation program
Reviewer for clinical practice guidelines for the American College of Radiology
Reviewer for clinical practice guidelines for the Canadian Association of Radiologists
Member, UBC Radiology Advisory Committee

And in addition to all the time she volunteers to better breast health, she also has volunteered as a Director of the Board of the Canucks for Kids Fund since 2006.

In recognition of her contributions to the field of breast imaging, she was made a Fellow of the Society of Breast Imaging, a society of the American College of Radiology, and volunteered on their Board of Directors for six years.

Her other awards and recognition include:

Officer, Order of Canada

Canadian Heads of Academic Radiology Development Award

BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital Award of Excellence in Education

A Killam Teaching Prize from University of British Columbia.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal.

The Order of British Columbia,

Honorary alumnus award from the UBC Medical Alumni Association.

Canadian Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, Trailblazers and Trendsetters Award

Was called “one of the greatest Canadian specialists in breast cancer detection and diagnosis” by the Ministry for the Status of Women, on the occasion of the International Day of Radiology

Best Teacher – UBC Radiology Residents

2022 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Prix d’excellence – Specialist of the Year award, Region 1

UBC Radiology 2022 Clinical Faculty Award for Excellence in Research/Discovery/Innovation

https://newsroom.royalcollege.ca/a-specialist-renowned-for-outstanding-patient-care-and-advocacy-in-the-community/

TWITTER HANDLE @DrPaulaGordon

Karen Goldenberg

Karen Goldenberg

Dense Breasts Canada announces Karen Goldenberg, CM, O.Ont Honourary Patron

Dense Breasts Canada is delighted to name Karen Goldenberg Honourary
Patron. Karen has worked tirelessly throughout her life to improve lives in
both the health and social service sectors. Karen is a recipient of both
the Order of Ontario and Order of Canada. Known as a compassionate and
strategic thinker, Karen is a change maker who led JVS Toronto and founded
COTA. She has had numerous roles in the health sector. Her affiliation with
Dense Breasts Canada has been ongoing.

Karen is delighted to be an Honourary Patron of Dense Breasts Canada: “I am
acutely aware of the need for proper screening of all women 40 and up. But
what drew me to Dense Breasts Canada was the fact that so many women’s
cancers were going undetected simply because of dense breast tissue. DBC has
advocated successfully to ensure proper notification to women with dense
breasts. The next step will be making ultrasound available to those who
require it. I applaud this mission and am happy to be associated with it.”

Annie Slight

ANNIE SLIGHT
Director, Advocacy and Education, Quebec

Annie is the Director of Advocacy and Education in Quebec. She lives in Montreal. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2013 at age 42. After a normal mammogram, Annie discovered a lump six months later. As a breast cancer survivor, she feels strongly about giving back and advocating for women. She also is passionate about ensuring that women receive information about their breast density so that they can make informed healthcare decisions. Annie began working with DBC in 2018. For the past five years, Annie has been raising awareness through numerous interviews in the media, actively spreading the word on social media and speaking to women at events. She has been advocating intensively for policy change.

Quebec was the first province to make it mandatory to include breast density information in the mammogram report sent to the doctor. However, doctors are not relaying the density information to women and most women do not know to ask their doctor. The government committed to providing the density category in the Health Booklet in 2021, but this is not enough. Annie continues to advocate so that all women in Quebec will be told their breast density in their mammogram results letter, as is being done in other provinces. She is also advocating for screening at age 40 in Quebec, one of the last provinces to lower the screening age.

Joan Bush

JOAN BUSH
Advisor

Joan Bush has served in a variety of capacities: as a Director of The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, a Director of Canada-Rwanda Board of Trade, member of the International Women's Forum (IWF) executive, and a board member of the Yee Hong Wellness Foundation, which supports culturally and linguistically appropriate care for over 15,000 seniors from different ethnic communities. She is also a member of the Women for Nature Initiative.

She has also served two terms as a governor on the Board of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. In 2012, Joan became a recipient of Queen’s Diamond Jubilee for her outstanding community service. As a Director of the Kiani Foundation, she has contributed extensively to the community through numerous charities including hospitals, scholarships, youth education, and women’s shelters.

Joan is passionate about raising awareness of the risks of dense breasts and ensuring that women across Canada understand their density and the importance of additional screening. She understands the significance of dense breasts from her own personal experience when an additional cancer was masked by dense tissue and only seen on MRI.

Eevin-Leigh Schlamp

EEVIN-LEIGH SCHLAMP
Graphic Design

Eevin-Leigh is a contemporary artist who lives in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Her professional background is in Marketing, Advertising and Graphic Design. “In 2020, I set out in search of a place where my contributions would feel more meaningful,” and that summer she met the co-founders of Dense Breasts Canada, Jennie Dale and Michelle Di Tomaso. “When I first spoke with Jennie and Michelle I knew I had found a network of women who were passionately advocating to make better changes for women’s breast health across Canada. They rally with that same passion every day, relentlessly fighting for better breast screening and necessary revisions to the current Canadian Task Force breast cancer screening guidelines, which put Canadian women’s lives at risk.”

Dense Breasts Canada has made great progress in educating and advocating for Canadians, and Eevin-Leigh continues advocating by volunteering her creativity as a designer for their social media pages. She designs social media content and assists with marketing and administration.

As a wife, and mom of two children, she knows that moms are always busy looking after their family, and more often than not, they don't make time for their own health. “I want my designs to inspire hope and courage for other Canadian moms out there to take the initiative to get a mammogram at 40 and understand their breast density.

Dr. Victoria Gay

Dr. Victoria Gay
Strategy Consultant

Dr. Victoria Gay is an Executive Consultant driving growth in organizations that are building a better world. Victoria has a PhD from University College London and 15 years’ experience in research, strategy, and innovation, across multiple sectors.

She has worked across in women’s health in both a research capacity and as the Senior Director of Strategy at BC Women’s Health Foundation. In her three years at BCWHF, Victoria was instrumental in driving the BC Women's Health Foundation from a foundation that served BC Women's Hospital to a provincial foundation dedicated to improving women's health. She led the Research, Innovation, Education + Awareness portfolios and associated strategic partnerships, and was heavily involved in the Foundation's advocacy efforts to encourage transformational investments in women’s health research, policy, and practice.

She volunteers with Dense Breasts Canada as both a passionate advocate for women’s health and an experienced non-profit consultant.