CANBERRA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Monday that raising awareness and putting resources into fighting breast cancer was an "extraordinarily important" national cause.

    Speaking at the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre's Pink Ribbon Breakfast in Sydney, Rudd said about 12,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year and the numbers tells the government that they need to do more about it.

    It was particularly important for young women to have the information they needed to act early in picking up breast cancer, Australian Associated Press quoted Rudd as saying.

    During his speech, Rudd also recalled his mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1963 and had undergone a radical mastectomy. She had had a recurrence of the disease in 1973.

    "I remember clearly as a little boy and growing up with what she lived with all that time in terms of the challenge, the uncertainty, the difficulty," he said, adding she was a survivor and had died of unrelated causes in 2004.

    The new campaign incorporates TV, radio and online advertisements, includes information about what changes to look out for, and explains why mammograms are not appropriate for screening younger women.

    Rudd said his government had set aside 40 million dollars (25 million U.S. dollars) in the budget for breast cancer, and would put an extra 100,000 dollars (61,000 U.S. dollars) for the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Center.