"I’m the luckiest unlucky person in the world, really; it’s like winning the dark lotto," she said.
"My mother had had a post-menopausal mastectomy and so I knew that when I was 45 I had to join the programme," she said.
However, for Ms Gee, the results were not as she had expected.
Her mammogram showed tiny specks of calcification in her breasts.
After closer examination, it was revealed she had pre-cancerous cells throughout both her breasts.
After careful consideration, she decided to go ahead with a mastectomy and abdominal reconstruction.
"We didn’t know how much we were dealing with and I didn’t want to have lots of surgeries. I just wanted to know that it was gone," Ms Gee said.
"If my mammogram hadn’t picked that up, two years down the track if it finally did start to turn into a lump, who knows what I would have been dealing with ... why would I sit on a ticking time bomb like that? Life is just far too valuable."
For Ms Gee, awareness was extremely important to ensure the best chance of early detection.
The two-day street appeal collecting donations for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF) is the biggest part of the foundation’s annual income and yesterday more than 260 volunteers hit Dunedin streets.
Dunedin CBD appeal co-ordinator Danielle Gibson was thrilled with the response from Dunedin people.
"The buckets have been emptied four or five times today."
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among New Zealand women and it also affects about 20 men a year.
NZBCF research and communications manager Adele Gautier said the foundation appreciated all donations, as it was constantly working to lower the rate of deaths due to breast cancer.
NZBCF statistics indicated that, every year, about 3000 women would be diagnosed with breast cancer — eight on any given day — and this year 600-plus would probably die.
However, 30% of eligible women are not enrolled in free screening and 60% of young women do not know the signs beyond a lump.
"Women should know their breasts and when time comes to join the screening programme, do. If you are going to wait for a lump to appear, sometimes that is too late," Ms Gee said.
"It is only an X-ray and it is an X-ray that might save your life."
- Fleur Mealing
