Ignoring your own health isn't putting others first, it's downright selfish Today host Lisa Wilkinson will have a mammogram on air Source: News Limited Tory Maguire says women who are eligible for free breast cancer screening but don't take it up are being selfish SINCE when do we need celebrity TV stunts to encourage us to take responsibility for ourselves? Today host Lisa Wilkinson has announced she'll undergo a mammogram on air. This came just a day after news broke a US presenter who had done the same was found to have breast cancer and the scan probably saved her life. The cynical among us might say 'ratings grab!' and of course when speaking of breakfast television no decision is made without considering whether it might nick a few eyeballs off the competitor. This is not to criticise Wilkinson. Good on her. She might just make some other women who have thus far neglected their health to take the plunge. The thing that amazes me is that enough people do ignore basic self-preservation advice that it takes the likes of Wilkinson pulling an on-air stunt to make them wake up to themselves (hopefully). How is it possible in 2013 in Australia - where biennial mammograms for women over 50 are free, where every second weekend there is a Pink event of some kind, where Angela Jolie's preventive mastectomy was front-page news - that a woman doesn't know about the cancer and its detection and treatment? The answer most of us do know, we just stick our heads in the sand. National Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Carol Renouf said half of all Australian women eligible for a free mammogram every two years (all women over 50) either never take it up or do so once and don't return. Trying to understand why, the Foundation did some focus groups and found two major motives: an unwillingness to "put themselves first" and more disturbingly a preference for denial. 'I don't want to know'. I have heard woman say that," says Renouf. Others were scared off by the procedure itself, finding it "humiliating, embarrassing or downright painful." "None of these are an excuse to endanger your life," says Renouf. She is obviously too polite to say 'stop being so selfish!'. But selfish it is. The Foundation has started campaigning on the impact breast cancer has on the people around the women affected, having to make the point that you might think you 'don't have time' to prioritise your own health but you won't be much chop looking after your family if you're sick or terminally ill. Mammograms are not fun. Nor are pap tests. But making up excuses not to take them is unbelievably stupid. Follow Tory on Twitter: @_Tors