Nigeria’s leading Public Relations agency, MediaCraft Associates in collaboration with STANBIC IBTC, on Friday, organized breast and cervical cancer awareness and screening for women, in Lagos.
The Medical Director, Optimal Cancer Foundation, Dr. Femi Olaleye, who was the guest speaker told participants that it was necessary for women to perform self-checks on their breasts at least once a month for early detection of lumps that might be cancerous.
He explained that only twenty percent of all lumps detected in the breast are cancerous, but cautioned against self-interpretation of such as he encouraged women to get medical assistance to ascertain the condition.
Olaleye stated that while breasts cancer kills one in twenty-five women in Nigeria, it can be avoided through a deliberate policy by the government to increase awareness and provide access to medical intervention.
“One in twenty-five Nigerian women is at risk in their lifetime to suffer from breast cancer. If all those women are taught how to examine their breasts and they do it religiously every month, when that ‘one in twenty-five is having the tiny lump’, she would be able to discover it on time and would no longer be another statistic of cancer,” he said.
Dr. Olaleye who previously worked with the NHS cited the UK’s commitment to tackling the health challenge by dedicating £4 billion while bemoaning the absence of a government policy at the state or federal level to address the situation in Nigeria.
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Also, Dr. Olaleye shed some light on cervical cancer, encouraging women to perform test annually to avoid the cervix from deteriorating as a result of the late diagnosis which might result in the death of the patient.
He noted that while breast cancer can be detected through self-check and mammogram, cervical cancer can be detected through a pap smear, a medical means that is performed by a physician.
Participants were offered on the spot screening for cervical cancer, and also a demostration of how to check for lumps in the breast was performed.
The cervical cancer screening, sponsored by Stanbic IBTC, was then carried out on all the women who were at the event.
