The World Cancer day celebrated on every February 4 of each year is a day set aside by the United Nations (UN)/World Health Organisation (WHO) to raise awareness about cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection and treatment.
WHO has revealed that Nigeria is faced with significant increase in the incidence of deaths from cancer in four years. In 2008 breast cancer killed 30 Nigerian women daily; by 2012 this had risen to 40 women daily. In 2008, prostate cancer killed 14 Nigerian men daily; by 2012, this had risen to 26 men daily. In 2008, liver cancer killed 24 Nigerians daily; by 2012, this had risen to 32 daily.
According to the National Co-ordinator of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP-Nigeria), Dr. Abia Nzelu, “Over 100,000 Nigerians are diagnosed with cancer yearly, and about 80,000 die (10 deaths every hour) with a dismal survival rate of 1:5. The situation is worse for some specific cancers. For example, the survival rate for certain blood cancers in Nigeria is 1:20 whilst at the Tata Cancer Centre in the Indian City of Mumbai, survivorship is 99:100 for the same condition. This poor survival rate in Nigeria is mainly due to inadequate infrastructure for cancer care and lack of well-organised system of prevention.”
But speaking on the activities of Sebeccly Cancer Care, Omojole Adetoro, a board member, said the organisation was established to raise awareness on cancer, assist cancer patients for treatment and to empower survivors to live a happy and stable life after completing treatment
