Koforidua, Oct. 20, GNA – The Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) has organised a breast cancer education workshop for its members as part of the breast cancer awareness month celebration.
About 100 members of the Union drawn from Volta, Eastern, and Greater Accra Regions participated in the workshop as well as a breast cancer screening exercise.
Mrs Margaret Nsiah Asamoah, Eastern Regional Director of Education in an opening address urged the leadership of the TEWU to set up a fund such as the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to give financial support to members who may be diagnosed with cancer because the financial burden on cancer treatment was huge.
She also observed that pictures of cancer patients used for education were usually that of white-skinned people and therefore gave the impression that cancer was for a certain category of people and appealed to the Ghana Health Service to look at that.
Ms Berikisu Adams, National Vice President of the TEWU Women’s Committee said for lack of education and awareness, many women reported late with cancer symptoms, hence, the education of the members to be able to report symptoms early for treatment.
She urged the members especially, women not to take lightly any change in the breast but to report promptly to a health facility and urged the participants to extend the education to their communities to ensure that no woman died of breast cancer.
Ms Faustina Simpeh, a nurse who educated the participants on signs and symptoms of the disease, disclosed that World Health Organization (WHO) statistics showed that 69 percent of all breast cancer deaths occurred in the developing countries including Ghana, adding that, approximately about 2,000 breast cancer cases were recorded in Ghana every year.
She explained that deaths from cancer had been very high in Ghana due to late visits to the hospitals and other challenges and advised patients who resorted to prayer camps and herbalists that such places could not diagnose or cure cancer but rather make the health facility their first point of call.
GNA