TELUS donation supports enhanced breast cancer detection

TELUS’ Go Pink campaign raises more than $37,000 for digital mammography equipment in Saskatchewan

Saskatoon, SK – TELUS’ Go Pink campaign has raised more than $37,000 for the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, with funds being used toward the purchase of digital mammography equipment. The campaign raised a total of more than $2 million for women’s breast health across Canada.

In May, TELUS announced it would donate $25 from every pink Blackberry sold across Canada towards new digital mammography machines in regional hospitals. Combined with employee and corporate donations, that campaign raised more than $2 million, more than $37,000 right here in Saskatchewan.

“We are pleased with the support from TELUS and the funds will help us to improve our screening technology and deliver better results for women having mammograms in our province,” said Sangeeta Gupta, Manager of the Screening Program for Breast Cancer. “Digital mammograms are quickly becoming the standard of care for breast imaging and have the potential to help catch cancer in its early stages when treatment is the most successful.”

In digital mammography, images are produced at a much higher quality, especially in dense breast tissue, allowing the radiologists to more easily see abnormalities. Radiologists can also magnify images for better viewing of questionable areas in the breast. Using this technology also means that women will not need to wait for films to be processed, which increases the ability to screen more women.

“Replacing existing analog mammography units with state-of-the-art digital machines that are better able to detect smaller cancers in denser tissue will save lives,” said Jill Schnarr, vice-president of TELUS Community Affairs. “At TELUS we give where we live and are thrilled to partner with our customers across Saskatchewan to help fund this important machine for the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency.”

The Go Pink campaign will help buy new digital mammography units or other innovative breast cancer technology for healthcare facilities in communities across Canada, including: BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre Foundation, Alberta Cancer Foundation, Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, CancerCare Manitoba, Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in Toronto, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, Segal Cancer Center at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital, the Jurivinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, and QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.

TELUS has been a long-time supporter of charities that advance cancer research, awareness and detection. Since 2000, TELUS, its team members and retirees have contributed $12.4 million towards finding a cure for cancer, and continue to raise funds and awareness for early detection. TELUS has also been a proud supporter of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s TELUS Tours for the Cure, the Rethink Breast Cancer fundraising campaign, the BC Cancer Foundation, and Alberta Cancer Foundation.

About Saskatchewan Cancer Agency
The Saskatchewan Cancer Agency operates prevention and early detection programs, provides safe, quality cancer treatment for men women and children and conducts innovative research.

For more information about the Saskatchewan cancer Agency, visit www.saskcancer.ca.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.7 billion of annual revenue and 12.1 million customer connections including 6.9 million wireless subscribers, 3.8 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 266,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $185 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 3.5 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Nine TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS’ local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.