Women Urged To Be Health Conscious

The President of Breast Care International and CEO of Peace and Love Hospitals Dr. Mrs Beatrice Wiafe Addai has urged women to be health conscious in all their pursuits in order to be able to strongly provide efficient services to their families and countries at large.

That when women, especially, mothers,who are managers of their homes fall sick, it grossly affects the strength of their families and their output at their places of work.

Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai gave this advice in an exclusive interview with www.modernghana.com's S. Appau Aheng on some of the programs and activities embarked on by the Breast Care International(BCI) and Peace and Love Hospitals(PLHs) at the beginning of the year,2015.

According to Dr. Wiafe Addai,BCI and PLHs have strengthened their programs to sensitize people on the cancers,more specifically Breast Cancer, and the provision of medical and other kinds of assistance and relief to cancer patients.

She has announced that despite efforts by various governmental and non-governmental organizations to prevent and control breast cancer in Ghana, it remains the leading cause of death amongst Ghanaian women, accounting for the majority of hospital admissions across the country.

Dr. Wiafe Addai has noted that Breast Cancer is treatable but also curable, if detected early, urging the women to regularly check their breasts and report any abnormalities to health care professionals immediately. "Breast Cancer's treatability and most importantly its curability is completely time dependent, and a delay in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer can have catastrophic results for a woman and her family, lowering her chances of survival drastically...In fact, sixty percent of Ghanaian women delay seeking medical consultation for breast abnormalities, often resulting in the progression of the disease into the advanced stages",Dr. Beatrice Addai explained.

To help fight this situation, the two organizations, Breast Care International(BCI) and Peace and Love Hospitals(PLHs) which have been formed with the vision and goal of preventing cancer deaths and working towards identifying the cause of breast cancer in Ghanaian women,have started in the year 2015, to conduct outreach programs to educate and screen women for breast cancer in religious organizations and communities.

On community bases,amongst several others organized at the start of the year, Dr. (Mrs.) Beatrice Wiafe Addai, the President of BCI and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PLHs on Saturday the 31st January, 2015 led a team of medical personnel to Bantama, Kumasi. The program served as a prelude to World Cancer Day that falls on the 4th of February each year, and provided participants an opportunity to learn about breast cancer, its signs, symptoms, risk factors, methods of investigation and treatment options.

The one day intensive program which was sponsored by the African Women's Development Fund(AWDF), saw several women being clinically screened for breast abnormalities and in particular, breast cancer. Those with abnormalities were referred to the hospital for further investigation and treatment. A blood donation exercise was also conducted to support breast cancer patients in need of blood transfusions, along with complementary blood glucose level and blood pressure checks for all participant's interest.