By Adejoke Adeleye, Abeokuta
The UPLIFT Development Foundation (UDF) has taken its annual free breast and cervical cancer awareness and screening campaign to Ogun East Senatorial District of the State, to create awareness and avail the people of the area the opportunity to access free screening and treatment.
Speaking at the Flag-off of at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) Sagamu on Thursday, the Wife of Ogun State Governor and President of UDF, Dr. (Mrs) Olufunso Amosun who underscored the claims that, breast cancer kills about 458,000 women globally on yearly basis, encouraged the women to take advantage of the cancer awareness month in order to examine themselves as early detection was the only remedy.
Mrs Amosun said the State Governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun would facilitate the cost of surgery for women diagnosed with breast lumps during the free screening programme holding at the designated UPLIFT Cancer Screening Centres at State Hospital Ota, State Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta as well as OOUTH, Sagamu, so that women in the State could have a sigh of relief on prevention and treatment of the scourge.
Mrs. Amosun explained further that the Foundation in collaboration with the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Ogun State branch had in the last six years reached out to women at tertiary institutions and Local Government Areas across the state to ensure that every woman benefited from the exercise, advising beneficiaries to take the awareness campaign to their respective communities.
Mrs. Olufunsho
advised the women to regularly carry-out self-examination of their breasts or visit any of the UPLIFT Development Cancer Screening Centres nearest to them from Monday to Friday of every month for screening and treatment of breast and cervical cancers.
In his remarks at the event, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye said the health intervention programme by Mrs Olufunsho Amosun had yielded positive results, especially in curbing the menace among women in the state, expressing delight over the fact that the people could still benefit from the programme beyond the present administration.
The President of the State branch of MWAN, Dr. (Mrs) Stella Ogunmuyiwa, explained that over 600 women had been screened since the exercise started out of which 45 lumps and three advanced breast cancer cases were diagnosed, urging women to seek prompt medical attention if they noticed any lump or thickening in their breast, discharge or bleeding from the nipple as these could be symptoms of breast cancer.
She lauded the efforts of Mrs Amosun and the state government for their contributions at ensuring the well-being of the people, particularly the indigents in the rural areas, pointing-out that the programme since 2012 had brought about drastic reduction in the prevalence of the scourge among women in the state.
Some of the beneficiaries, Mrs Iyabo Odusanya and Mrs Abosede Ajijojola in their remarks, acknowledged that they could never have been able to afford the cost of the screening and treatment given to them but for the intervention of the Foundation who had brought the screening to their doorstep.