Sonotech Medical and Diagnostic Centre (SMDC) together with its partners on Friday launched this month’s Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign in Accra, dubbed “It’s Time to Rise.”
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is celebrated in October, aims at creating awareness, giving public education, screening for early detection, mobilising resources as well as supporting patients and survivors.
During the launch, the Medical Director of SMDC, Dr Grace Buckman, said her team was proud to be associated with the annual month-long campaign which has for the past six years yielded positively in the lives of many, especially the marginalised.
According to Dr Buckman, for the past six years, SMDC through the breast cancer awareness programme had supported over 2,275 women, amounting to over Gh₵280,770.00.
“Just last year, out of over 2,000 women screened, 230 women benefitted from our 50 per cent discounted breast ultrasound scans while about 100 others benefitted from our 20 per cent mammography scans, with about GH₵40,110.00 support cash to these group of women to support them for other needs,” she said.
She highlighted that their goal this year was simply to call on everyone to rise once again through the public breast cancer awareness for both women and men.
“We want to encourage, educate and support people living with breast cancer, with the view to building a stronger and healthier community where no person faces breast cancer alone,” she stated.
Dr Buckman further called on state agencies including the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, International agencies, Civil Society Organisations and Philanthropists to join hands and mobilise resources to scale up the fight against Breast Cancer.
“This would help widen our efforts for many people in marginalised communities and hard-to-reach areas of this country to benefit,” she appealed.
Emphasising more on the issue of Breast Cancer, the Guest Speaker for the occasion, a Clinical Oncologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Naa Adorkor Aryeetey, advised people to avoid using concoctions for the treatment of Breast Cancer and rather visit the hospitals.
“People must take advantage of health screenings and screen all the time for early detections, also women should self-breast examine, especially after menstruation because Breast Cancer is common in women than in men,” she advised.
Launching the campaign, General Surgeon of Breast Surgery Unit at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Josephine Nsaful, said all hands should be on board in all activities associated with Breast Cancer Awareness.
“We must encourage survivors to tell their stories for others to get hope if they fall victim, we must also be ambassadors in our homes, relationships and communities,” she said.
BY ANITA ANKRAH
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