A Lagos-based health facility, Hamaab Medical Centre, says it has conducted breast cancer screening for 60 women at Ladegboye Community in Ikorodu area of the state.
Dr Tunji Akintade, it’s Medical Director, said that the exercise, held in partnership with Monitor Healthcare on Monday, was to detect and reduce breast cancer burden among women in the community.
Akintade, a former Chairman, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), said that the programme was also to raise awareness about cancer prevention and provide support for sufferers.
According to him, breast and cervical cancer are the most common among women, adding that prevention and early detection is critical to saving more lives.
“The health-seeking behaviour of most people in Ladegboye community is low, to raise awareness and strengthen the health system and engagement, we decided to bring the outreach here.
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“It presents an opportunity to draw attention to all the challenges posed by a health issue, and to ensure that we rally round to bring about a sustainable solution to reduce the burden of cancer in the society.
“I am glad that we held the programme because, from the screening, we detected four women with lumps in their breast, and have given them a referral for further medical treatment,” he said.
The medical director added that appliance for breast screening was available at the hospital to ensure the continuation of the life-saving initiative for women in the area.
Akintade further said the exercise was a corporate social responsibility programme for the community as part of activities to celebrate the second anniversary of Hamaab Medical Centre
Dr Femi Ogunremi, Managing Director, Monitor Healthcare Ltd., said that the medical technology company was passionate about creating awareness toward reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases.
Ogunremi said that the objective of the company was to reduce the mortality rate of cancer in the country by 20 per cent in the next 10 years.
“We need to change the narrative of people dying from breast cancer, that is why we have taken the outreach to virtually all Primary Health Centres in Lagos State,” he said.
He said that the company had conducted outreach in Lagos, Kwara, Ogun, Kaduna, Abuja and Akwa-Ibom in the last one year and reached about 15, 000 women.
He advised women to conduct regular breast cancer screening, stressing that early diagnoses were vital in its treatment as being actively propagated this in the company’s campaigns.