Josiane Clavelin, whistleblower on breast cancer among nursing staff

On the lapel of her coral sweater, Josiane Clavelin has pinned a pink satin ribbon. The emblem of “Pink October”, the breast cancer prevention campaign organized each fall by the Pink Ribbon association. This Thursday at the end of October, the 63-year-old pensioner, an activist at the CFDT for minors in Lorraine, is preparing to receive three women affected by the disease. Even if its survival rate reaches 88%, breast cancer remains the most frequent and the deadliest in women: 58,000 new cases occur each year in France.

The unionist compiles thick files, the first in the name of Martine. Dark-haired, slender, she moved in front of her, on the first floor of the union room, in a pavilion in Freyming-Merlebach (Moselle). His voice, strained by skin-deep anger, hits the walls: “I was 48 when my cancer started, traces the ex-nurse, 61 years old, thirty-eight of whom spent in hospital. It was during this period that I said: “I don’t want to work at night anymore”. I had already done 873. ”

An unprecedented approach

Josiane Clavelin listens attentively behind her blonde bangs. She also worked in the hospital, as a pediatric nurse’s aide, and from this profession retains a form of gentleness and empathy. Like Martine, she knew the night guards who disrupt the biological clock. If personal factors (family history, alcohol, tobacco, etc.) increase the risk of breast cancer, the trade unionist is interested in the harmful role of work.

“Neither my doctor nor my gynecologist wanted to sign a certificate to say that there was a possible link between my cancer and work. They don’t get wet! »Martine

The women she sees, mainly nurses or nursing aides who have worked at night and in contact with X-rays, want their pathology recognized as an occupational disease. A new approach: in recent months, two files have already been sent to health insurance funds with the help of the union. Others will follow in the coming weeks. In all, around thirty requests must be completed.

This is the case with Martine’s case. “Neither my doctor nor my gynecologist wanted to sign a certificate to say that there was a possible link between my cancer and work, she regrets. They don’t get wet! “ “However, that does not commit the doctor very much … annoys Doctor Lucien Privet. I’ll do it for you. “

This union companion stands alongside Josiane Clavelin. They receive the women in pairs: she is the worker and the activist, who intimately knows the working conditions of caregivers; gives it its scientific backing. In the 1970s, the septuagenarian with laughing eyes landed at the entrance to the mine shafts with Maoists concerned about the respiratory problems of miners. He has never left the region.

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