The Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED) has collaborated with the Kwadaso Municipal Health Directorate to organise a day’s breast cancer screening for University staff, their dependents, and members of the communities in the environs of the University.
The day was also to create public awareness on breast cancer, highlight the need for early detection and treatment, and expose women to self-examination techniques regarding the disease. October is marked globally as “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
The early morning part of the exercise organised on October 26, 2021, at the AAMUSTED Clinic in Kumasi was devoted to a breast cancer awareness talk where midwives and nurses enlightened patrons on the nitty-gritty of the disease.
One of them, a Senior Midwife at the Kwadaso SDA Hospital, Madam Nickell Peprah, encouraged women to take advantage of breast cancer screening exercises frequently organised in the communities to examine their breasts, stressing that early detection and treatment were necessary for a full recovery.
She disabused the perception that breast cancer was an evil disease that necessarily required a spiritual approach to treatment. She also asked them to do a monthly self-examination of the breast and report any changes they detect to a hospital for prompt medical attention.
The Administrator at the Clinic, Madam Esther Birago, indicated happily that female staff and their dependents had turned out in their numbers to take advantage of the exercise.
She was hopeful that they would channel the enthusiasm with which they took part in the exercise into adopting healthy lifestyles, doing regular self-examination of the breast, and visiting experts for screening, at least once a year.
The Senior Medical Officer at the Clinic, Dr. Ato Kwamena Sagoe was grateful to the AAMUSTED Management for their support towards the organisation of the screening. He said, the effort was indicative of Management’s commitment to ensure that staff, their dependents, and the community around the University remain healthy for the good of Ghana.
He hinted that a few of the patrons showed abnormal signs at the end of the exercise and they were referred to go for further investigations.
Available statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that a whopping 2.3 million women were diagnosed globally with breast cancer in 2020 alone. Out of the number 685,000 died. The Organisation also ranked breast cancer the world’s most prevalent cancer in 2020 after recording a total of 7.8 million of the cases from 2015 to 2020. The cancer forms in the cells of breasts mainly in women. It is treatable and requires medical diagnosis.
