Over 200 people marched from Spinola to Ta' Xbiex yesterday to raise awareness about breast screening, while calling on the government to subsidise expensive treatment.

Organised by the Action For Breast Cancer Foundation, the walk was joined by several TV and sport personalities, scouts and other public figures including Health Parliamentary Secretary Joseph Cassar and the Labour leaders' wife, Michelle Muscat.

The foundation is collecting signatures for a petition calling for a breast screening programme. It aims to improve the service for diagnosis and treatment of the disease so that it can be detected earlier without causing patients to shoulder financial burdens.

TV programme presenter Rennie Vella said the foundation is calling for expensive medicine, like Herceptin, to be provided for free because patients were taking out bank loans to buy the treatment.

Dr Cassar said the government was studying the feasibility of providing more subsidies on medication. The money would come from taxation and, therefore, it had to be a calculated decision.

The government had always supported the foundation and was doing its utmost to cater for the growing number of breast cancer patients.

Foundation spokesman Phyllis Muscat appealed for greater breast cancer awareness while stressing the importance of regular breast screening.

Mrs Muscat said the Labour Party was urging the government to implement a breast screening programme. It was unacceptable for patients and their families to be burdened with the high cost of treatment, she said, adding that these people needed action not just fine words.

The marchers carried banners reading Stop Breast Cancer and Action Speaks Louder Than Words.

Several volunteers urged passers-by to sign the petition, which will be presented to Parliament once the target of 5,000 signatures is reached.

Those wishing to support this cause can sign the online petition at www.actionforbreastcancer.com.