LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-About 521 Malawian women were over the weekend in the outskirts of the capital Lilongwe lured into breast and cervical cancer screening which Think Pink has intensified.This is an annual event particularly in October which is a cancer month that the country disseminates messages about the disease.
Established in 2013, Think Pink Malawi, a grouping of eleven passionate individuals on breast cancer, has been partnering with the Ministry of health and other institutions in sensitization campaign through mobile cancer screening and detection for early treatment.
The former 2002 Miss Malawi Blandina Khondowe who once experienced the scourge of breast cancer is behind Think Pink currently in a sensitization campaign drive to women within and outside Lilongwe city.
This year has lined up three main events whose first activity was over the weekend at Chileka health centre, Msundwe at Traditional Authority (T.A) Kalolo in the rural Lilongwe.
In an interview with The Maravi Post after the exercise registered over 521 women, Think Pink Malawi founder Khondowe expressed gratitude over enormous support communities rendered towards the campaign.
Khondowe said the exercise was very paramount regarding the knowledge and service gap that exist in women and girls in rural areas.
The former Miss Malawi added that the message during the entire exercise in this month was simply advocating for early detection as it saves lives.
She therefore urged companies, individuals, donor partners to support the initiative in any form that many women in remotest area are reached.
“We want women to learn how to examine themselves. Here in Malawi, while a small population is certainly aware of and suffers from breast and cervical cancer, there is still a large number of the population that is not aware of how to prevent and fight the disease.
“Having witnessed firsthand the inadequacies of breast cancer treatment and care during the time of my diagnosis in 2013, I decided to educate people about breast cancer using my experience via my blog called “my breast cancer journey.
“We are here in T/A Kalolo’s area because there is a lot of ground work that needs to be done as most women live in the rural areas. They too need to be educated on the effects of breast and cervical cancer and also require adequate facilities for management and care of breast cancer”, she said.
On her part a Mrs. T. Phiri, National Coordinator for Cervical Cancer in the ministry of Heath disclosed that cervical cancer is killing many women in Malawi compared to breast cancer.
Phiri said through the initiative, more women and girls are instilled with knowledge on how personally they can detect signs of the cancer which necessitate health facilities’ visit for early treatment.
She added the country’s referral, Cham and district hospitals have facilities for breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment as nurses have been trained to offer such services.
“The ministry is grateful to Blandina’s Think Pink Initiative as its reaching less privileged women especially in semi-urban areas through sensitization awareness campaign and mobile screening which needs more support from corporate world not only the ministry”, urges Phiri.
The current Ministry of Health’s statistics shows that in Malawi more than 1,600 women and girls are dying of cervical cancer with 2,300 new cases yearly while breast cancer remains unknown to many women due to late detection.