Group drives cervical cancer awareness, provides free screening
AS part of its corporate social responsibility initiative to maintain a healthy environment, Equity Assurance Plc. in collaboration with Managed Healthcare Service limited, members of Sunu Group, provided free cervical cancer screening to women at Surulere, while they sensitized residence on the need for cancer prevention.
The screening, which took place at the Optimal Cancer Care foundation, witnessed a sensitization walk, which had management and staff of the organisations, artisans, and students of tertiary institutions, come out en masse to increase awareness on the disease, with the call for regular screening. Available statistics in Nigeria, shows that cervical cancer kills a woman every hour, which is an equivalent of 8, 000 deaths in a year.
Further reports also revealed that 100, 000 new cancer cases are added to the pool every year in the absence of screening. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Equity Assurance Plc., Moruf Apampa, who led the walk said, ignorance remains a major barriers to tackling cancer in Nigeria, adding that there is need to intensify advocacy on regular screening in order to detect the disease early, which saves lives.
He said prevention is the best way to reduce the burden of the disease in Nigeria, which was why the organization, took the awareness to the grass root.
“The way people die of cancer nowadays is devastating and so we need to create more awareness, because ignorance is no longer an excuse. We need to see how we can assist people get more conscious and aware of healthy living, which is part of our giving back to the society as an organization,” he said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Managed Healthcare Services, Limited, Dr Okorie Chukwuemeka, said cancer is a curable disease if detected early, just as he enjoined women to go for regular screening to detect and treat the disease on time.
“The modality of preventing cancer is very simple, which is screening, although, there are vaccines that could be given to eliminate the virus. The bad side is that when it is not detected early, it develops and then the person will have to manage the disease in order to prolong the person’s life, which is why as an organization, we will continue to support and promote prevention and early screening to the grass root,” he added.