Accra— The SDA Valley View Hospital has organised a float to commemorate World Breast Cancer Month to create awareness on the breast health and the wellbeing of females.
The float which started at about seven am from the SDA Valley View Hospital through some principal streets in the Oyebi community, had participants wielding placards and sharing leaflets designed to inform and inspire people to rise up to the realities of breast cancer.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the float, a Public Health Practitioner, Pastor Eric Wormenor, said breast cancer was real because one out of eight women could develop the cancer and that many affected women lost their lives for want of early treatment and proper care.
Pastor Wormenor, who was also a Physician Assistant with the SDA Valley View Hospital, said men could also develop breast cancer so it was important they also took care of their breasts.
The Public Health Practitioner said self-breast examination every month could help people “to detect whether there is any kind of lump in their breast, whether there is any discharge from their nipple, is the breast discoloured, is it painful, is it irregular, has it changed size.
“When you notice this, you need to come to the hospital for further examination so that the proper management could be initiated immediately. If we detect it early, it helps saves life.”
He observed that the best thing to do was to detect it very early which would lead to saving lives because there was medication to cure it in the early stages.
Pastor Wormenor therefore observed that the cancer awareness month was very necessary because people did forget that they needed to self-examine their breast regularly, and moreso for women who were expected to do that after completing every menstrual flow.
He said there were things people consumed that could lead to getting cancer so advised strongly about eating healthy and avoiding chunk food.
The health practitioner observed that when “you fondle the breast and massage it, it makes the cells very active and feel like it is being used so that it reduces the rate of people getting cancer.”
The Head of Facility/Administrator of the SDA Valley View Hospital, Mrs. Comfort Agyekum Boateng said late presentation of breast cancer was dangerous and untreatable. “So we want people to be aware that early presentation is treatable,” he added.
Mrs. Boateng indicated that the hospitals were not well-equipped to deal with cancer cases and therefore sometimes health professionals were forced to overlook the cases. She therefore asked government to help make cancer treatment affordable and covered by NHIS.
She also asked government to resource health facilities in order for health personnel to champion breast cancer campaigns since it ought not to be restricted to October.
The Head of Facility indicted that because awareness of the existence of breast cancer targeted women, women took it seriously and were able to come for treatment and whilst the men did not and increased their risk of getting cancer.
In explaining why the hospital was the best place to treat breast cancer, Mrs. Boateng said, “I am not saying herbal treatment for breast cancer is not good, just that they do not know when a condition has developed into cancer. When it develops into cancer, the treatment is different, else they would just give you anything and it might escalate the situation.”
Recognizing October, known as the Pink Month, as breast cancer awareness month started in the US in 1985. This float is the maiden version organized by the SDA Valley View Hospital with the aim of intensifying the campaign over time.
The float was sponsored by Valley View University, ECP Ltd., Philips Pharmaceuticals, MSN Group of Companies, and MGP.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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