The Wife of Kebbi State governor, Dr Zainab Bagudu has solicited for support for Project Pink Blue, an NGO, and others into awareness creation and treatment of cancer, to reduce the prevalence of the disease in the country.
Bagudu made the call in her speech at the screening of a movie titled “Conquering Cancer” on Tuesday in Abuja.
The event, which was organised by Project Pink Blue, was aimed at creating awareness on the need and possibility of eliminating cervical cancer in the country.
Bagudu said cancer was such a common disease now, adding that there were misconceptions in some quarters that cancer was a wealthy people’s disease and thus not a problem to the poor.
“The fact is that cancer is real and common, a lot of people have in contact or knew someone who had cancer.
She said Nigerans must applaud and support organisations dealing in the creation of awareness, access to care and diagnosis and access to palliative care such as Project Pink Blue, Medicaid Cancer Foundation and others.
“The Nigerian Cancer Society has become the very strong and formidable cancer umbrella for all Nigerians. We must continue to project the sufferings of cancer patience and their families.
“I really enjoy the movie and we need to find a way of reducing the pressure and stress that cancer patients and their loved ones were facing.
“I get messages daily on request and others about cancer. I thank organisations that are into creating awareness and care and breaking the stigmatidation,” Bagudu said.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that during the discussion by panelists, Dr Laz Ude Eze, the Founder of Talkhealth 9ja, said there was need to expose young girls to HPV via school curriculum.
According to him, this will educate them to know more about cervical cancer.
The community health educator could also assist in educating parents and children that were out of school.
“If we can achieve positive result in the reduction of cervical cancer, it will also lead to positive result on liver cancer and other cancers.
” Also early screening is good. If cancer is detected really, it would be handled well,” Ude said.
One of the panelists, Ms Chika Nwankwo, the Project Coordinator of Vaccine Network for Disease Control, said behavioural change was important to address cancer issues.
Nwankwo stressed that some people were aware of certain activities to do to prevent cancer, but they won’t do it.
For another panelist, Rachel Anyanwu, there was need for women to understand what caused cervical cancer, adding that there was also need for sex education to the young ones.
Mrs Funmilayo Omole, a cancer survivor, said that the school and Parets Teachers Associstion (PTA) should be involved in the creation of awareness about cancer.
Omole also solicited for more funding because, some women did not have the resources or economic power to take care of their health.
Mr John Uba from Blue Print Newspapers, said for proper reportage, there was need for effective training of journalists on cancers and other related issues.
According.to him, this will go a long way in building the capacity of journalists to report the story effectively.
Discussion about this post