By Veena Bharwani

THE two friends were excited by the promotion.

They were going to pay only $25 for a mammogram which usually costs $100.

But when the two retirees turned up at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) headquarters on Hospital Drive yesterday, they were turned away.

All the places had been taken up, they were told.

A disappointed Madam Eileen Yeo, 62, said: "We made the effort to go down on time but we were told it was fully booked.

"We didn't even know there were only 150 places available. It was not stated in their advertisement."

Madam Yeo said that she had spotted the newspaper advertisement on the mammogram promotion - called the NCCS Mammothon about a week ago.

It said that the NCCS Mammothon will take placeon24 and25 Oct and asked interested parties to pre-register themselves at the NCSS headquarters between 2pm and 5pm yesterday and between9amandnoontoday.

Madam Yeo claimed that when she called the hotline number given, she was just told that to qualify for the promotion, she had to be at least 50 years old and not have had a mammogram in the past year.

She said: "I qualified right away. I even tried to pre-register on the phone, but they told me to go down to do it personally."

She claimed she was not told that there were only 150 slots available - if not, she would have got there earlier.

She and her friend turned up at the headquarters just after 2.30pm.

Her friend, Madam Elaine Foo, 59, was equally disappointed.

She pointed out that because of the limited places, all those who show up today will be turned away.

"They should know that there are a lot of women above the age of 50whocould benefit from this. So why limit it to 150 people only?" she said.

Limited manpower When contacted, an NCCS spokesman confirmed that there are no more places available and pre-registration for the NCCS Mammothon has closed.

The spokesman apologised for the inconvenience caused, and explained that only 150 places were available due to the limited number of mammogram machines and manpower available.

The spokesman said that the advertisements, which appeared in newspapers including The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao about a week ago, did not specify that there were limited places because NCCS had not expected such a large turnout.

Those who called the NCSS hotline were told that the appointments are available on a first-served basis, the spokesman added.

veenab@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.