Heroines Pitch, a nongovernmental organization joins the rest of the world in the fight against breast cancer with the theme “Squeeze a boob today, save a life tomorrow”.
The month of October is recognize as National Breast Cancer Awareness month, an annual campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer risk and promote the value of screening, treatment and early detection.
Speaking to a section of women in the Greater Accra region, president of the organization Mariam Boateng noted that the danger of breast cancer has not been fully appreciated by the majority of Ghanaians as few make effort to examine their breast for early detection.
She said being a woman is just a risk factor of getting the disease, genetic mutation and ageing is another risk factor.
Citing that “Cancer of the breast is the most common cancer in both developing and developed countries and is responsible for over one million in an estimated ten million neoplasms diagnosed in both sexes worldwide. Breast cancer is also the primary cause of cancer death among women globally, responsible for about 425,000 deaths in 2010 . In 2012, nearly 1.7 million new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed worldwide (second most common cancer overall after cervical cancer), representing about 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women. This is an increase from 2010 when 1.6 million new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed. Increasing incidence of breast cancer is also being reported for developing countries in Africa, in contrast to previous reports”.
She advised women to make effort to examine their breast for early detection and treatment.
She illustrated how self examine should also be practice regularly by touching the boobs to see if there is any changes in the breast.
By : Hamida Shawwal /awakenewsroom.com