Husbands vital to fighting breast cancer

Scores of women who thronged the latest free breast screening exercise marking the first anniversary celebrations of the creation of the Nkawkaw Diocese of the Methodist Church, have credited lead anti breast cancer campaigner, Breast Care International, for the consistent, life-saving, free nationwide screening programs.
The Eastern regional bustling commercial town had been the scene of several free breast screening programs. Last year, BCI marked its local version of world cancer day in the town, among several other preceding programs.
It was no surprise when women, some accompanied by relatives, swarmed the team on arrival, many crediting the organization with heart-warming stories of survival, while others confessed they had stepped out of their shadows and were undergoing treatment presently.
For yet another category, it was a tale of coming to terms with reality as the consistent awareness creation and free breast screening programs, had brought home the risk factors of the disease, and the need to promptly report suspicious lumps for treatment.
A middle aged woman, pleading anonymity, confessed how members of her household had disabused their minds about the long held, erroneous view that breast cancer was caused by witchcraft. “you have no idea how relieved the older women in my family are, after listening to one of your numerous programs”, she said amid smiles, in an apparent reference to yet another Ghanaian myth that accuses most older women of witchcraft.
Another woman, who had “ambushed” the President of Breast Care International, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, moments before she boarded her car, was full of admiration and praise. ”Mum’, she started, “but for your free screening and education, I would have been stuck at home under the delusion that the little lump I felt in my breast was nothing to lose sleep about.”
The program, which took a life of its own in the form of word of mouth attestation, got a further boost when some survivors of the disease shrugged off stigma and publicly shared their life-saving surgeries and the ensuing productive lives they had led.
BCI President, humbled and tongue-tied, however repeated her mantra of early detection of the condition, being a pre-condition to saving lives.
The screening, under the auspices of the Nkawkaw Methodist Diocese, was mainly organized by the lay Chairperson, Mrs. Paulina Osabutey, whose admonition to the women to pay heed to all the useful information passed on, was supported by The Right Reverend John Degraft Priddy, Bishop, Nkawkaw Diocese, of the Methodist church.