Seven months after the Leah Charity Foundation, an Ilorin Kwara State non-governmental organisation opened its first cancer screen centre in one of the suburbs of the ancient city, more than 5,000 have presented in the four centres for various forms of screening.
Speaking on the activities of the centre, Chief Operations Officer for the organisation, Mrs. Bukola Akinleye, noted that this impressive turn out of people would be a direct result of the massive sensitisation effort of the Founder of the organisation as well as the accessible nature of the services provided at the centre, “which obviously encourages anyone who has been here to tell other people to come”
It would be recalled that in the immediate period after marking the 2014 edition of the world cancer day, the foundation, led by its Founding Trustee, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed, embarked on a sensitisation drive across the state.
The drive, which is ongoing has been taken to 10 of the 16 local government areas in the state with hundreds of volunteers distributing flyers and speaking with women and their husbands on the need to embrace voluntary screening for cervical cancer and constant self-examination towards early detection of any indication for breast cancer.
Mrs. Ahmed who visited, traditional, religious and market, while praying that no woman would come down with any of this conditions, pointed out they were no longer death sentences when detected early enough for adequate medical intervention. She noted that early detection was only possible when women checked themselves regularly and encouraged men and women to encourage others to seek information that her necessary.
She also encouraged parents to look after their girl-children, ensure they attend school and stay away from early sex as early sexual experience and multiple sexual partners make young girls susceptible to cervical cancer.
Ahmed pointed out that Cancer had become the highest killer of women in the area and that it was important for all hands to be on deck to work for its prevention. She explained that this was the reason for her organisation’s initiative and that talk was on to ensure that screening centres were brought closer to all the local governments in the state.
The foundation current has four facilities where women can screen for cervical cancer and get counselling and training on how to examination their breast once every month. These centres are at Leah Cancer Centre, GRA, Ilorin, Sobi Specialist Hospital, Adewole Cottage Hospital and Children Specialist Hospital, Ilorin.
Women get checked for a token of N200.
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