By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, Oct. 29, GNA – The Meena Breast Cancer Foundation (MBCF) is exploring partnerships with healthcare providers and educational institutions to integrate breast health education and form Breast Cancer Clubs into School Curricula.
Mr Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, the Executive Director of MBCF, said to ensure sustainability, they were also establishing a network of volunteer healthcare professionals and community advocates.
Mr Kwarteng made this known at a press conference organised by the Foundation in Accra on its activities and achievements.
The Foundation is an initiative born on the vision of the late Mrs Amina Oppong Kwarteng, who died on June 18, 2022, of Breast Cancer.
She was the wife of Mr Kwarteng, Who is also the Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation (CCF) and Ambassador Extraordinaire of Ghana Prisons.
While she was on her sick bed, Mrs Kwarteng vowed to fight relentlessly against Breast Cancer through advocacy and giving financial support to poor patients.
Considering the increasing Breast Cancer cases across the country, the Foundation carried out advocacy campaigns throughout the year, instead of October which has become the referral month for Breast Cancer education and sensitization.
He urged the Ministry of Education to ask school Heads to establish breast cancer clubs in Senior High Schools across the country to increase awareness and education about the disease, which could gradually become a national catastrophe.
He said breast cancer is the most common cancer in Ghana accounting for 19.5 per cent of all newly diagnosed cancer cases.
In 2020, there were 24,009 cancer cases, with breast cancer being the leading type. The disease caused 6.9% of cancer-related deaths in Ghana, with 684,996 deaths reported.
He said interestingly, 30 per cent of cases in the country were diagnosed in women under 35 years old.
Unfortunately, survival rates for breast cancer are low due to late presentation and diagnosis and it is worth noting that these statistics highlight the need for increased awareness in the country.
He said since the establishment of the Foundation a year ago, it had visited over 50 Senior High Schools, many religious groups, corporate institutions and many communities across the country to offer free breast cancer education and screening.
He said it had also supported and continued to support many Breast Cancer patients financially to access medical tests, surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
“It also organizes regular counselling sessions for breast cancer patients. This forms part of the Foundation’s efforts to fight Breast Cancer,” he said.
The Ambassador Extraordinaire of Ghana Prisons said the Foundation was currently putting up a Breast Cancer Health Facility at Gomoa Potsin to serve the people of the Central Region.
He said this was going to be the first of its kind in the country and expressed the hope to set up more across the country when funds become available.
He said despite these efforts, securing sponsorship to support the awareness campaigns and the many Breast Cancer cases “we come across is one main challenge for the MBCF.”
GNA