By Rosemary Wayo
Tamale, Oct 26, GNA-Health, Education and Research Policy-Africa (HERPol-Africa) has organised breast screening exercise for students at the Tamale Islamic Science Senior High School (TISSEC).
The screening was part of the organisation’s activities to contribute to the global campaign on breast cancer awareness, which is marked in October, every year.
As part of the exercise, a team of nurses from the Oncology Department of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) also educated the students on breast cancer.
Ms Rukaya Kpeb, Administrative Assistant at HERPol-Africa, speaking during the event in Tamale, said the organisation considered students’ inability to move to screen centres to be checked, hence the move to conduct the screening for them at their school.
She noted that HERPol-Africa had undertaken other activities within Kalpohin and Gbalahi within the Tamale Metropolis that were geared towards raising awareness of breast cancer.
Mr Abdul-Rahaman Manan, Headmaster of TISSEC, expressed gratitude to HERPol-Africa for the gesture and said the school needed information on health issues that prevailed more among women, as girls formed the highest population of the school.
He called on other organisations to emulate HERPol-Africa to organise sensitisation programmes on candidiasis, Human Immune Virus (HIV) and other illnesses for the school, adding that it was prudent for students to acquire the right health information.
Ms Emelia Iddi, a nurse at the Plastic and Oncology Unit of TTH, who was the team lead for the screening, said feedback from the students during the interaction session showed that they had little knowledge about breast cancer.
She said the team educated the students on breast cancer and the many misconceptions associated with it.
Some of the students spoke to the Ghana News Agency about how beneficial the programme was and called for similar exercises.
Muyasir Fatimah Zahara, a first-year science student of TISSEC, said she was enlightened on the possible symptoms of breast cancer and the importance of early detection.
GNA