Breast Cancer: Hope for Future Generations calls for yearlong screening, sustained nationwide education

Hope for Future Generations (HFFG) has called for an all-year-round breast cancer screening and awareness campaign by stakeholders to reduce breast cancer cases in the country. The Organisation also urged churches, mosques and the media to sustain the awareness and education campaign, and fight stigma and discrimination. A statement from HFFG urged that the education and awareness campaign should be taken to communities and underserved areas. It also said the education should focus on symptoms of breast cancer, risk factors, self-examination, and preventive measures. HFFG said Government should make early detection and treatment of breast cancer accessible and affordable. The statement said despite the worldwide commemoration of breast cancer in October every year, also known as 'Pink Month', with calls encouraging women and men to screen their breasts for cancer, only a few people screened their breasts, with many doing so at advanced stages of the disease. The HFFG said that had resulted in breast can cer being the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Ghana. The statement said according to research, only 4.5 per cent of older Ghanaian women had ever undergone breast cancer screenings, with 70 per cent of them at advanced stages. It said Ghana in 2022 recorded 5,026 cases of breast cancer with associated 2,369 deaths, representing an increase in the number of cases recorded in 2020, 4,482, according to studies. The statement said it was estimated that one in 22 women would develop breast cancer in their lifetime in the country. It said enduring multiple surgeries and excruciating pain day and night had been the story of many women who succumbed to breast cancer and that unfortunately, stories of breast cancer survivors had not changed the narrative, with stigma and discrimination affecting awareness campaigns and education. HFFG expressed hope that with those interventions, the number of reported cases and deaths would reduce drastically, with more impactful stories of survivors. It encouraged eve ryone, women and men, to screen their breasts today because 'breast is Source: Ghana News Agency