Why attention to breast cancer only during October?

Oct 09, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
Many issues that harm the Guyanese population are usually “swept under the rug”. One of these issues happens to be breast cancer.
According to recent statistics, breast cancer is ranked as the number one cancer related death in this country. During the month of October, many activities are held to bring awareness to this disease.
Many persons wear pink, go for the breast cancer walk or share several popular hash tags on social media. Do people actually do all of this to bring awareness or to follow a crowd? Their motives I question since everything is done for popularity. However, there are genuine people that support the cause and are willing to bring awareness to their loved ones.
Before I embarked on collecting my research for this article, I was ignorant to this entire topic. I became interested in this area when I read a book my mother gave me titled ‘’A Women’s Encyclopedia of Health and Emotional Healing”.
In the book, a woman mentioned that breast self-examinations aren’t taught very well and that women are afraid they’ll find something. After reading this, I realised that many people in this country are also uneducated to the importance of breast care.
A monthly breast self – examination should be carried out and a yearly consultation with a doctor is recommended. Early detection can save lives.
The Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) is currently running a promotion where free breast examinations will be carried throughout the month. Also, a 50% discount for cervical, testicular and prostate cancer screening.
It is located on 70 Quamina Street (between Quik Serv and Hallmark Store). Their telephone number for the clinic is 225-0739. The Georgetown Public Hospital and the Cancer institute of Guyana provide breast cancer treatment. The Georgetown Public Hospital is located on 258-259 Middle & Thomas Street and their numbers are 226-7210/226-7214.
The Cancer Institute of Guyana is located in the Georgetown Public Hospital Compound at the Lamaha Street Entrance. Their telephone numbers are 225-5701 and 225-5703. These places you can visit or call to get more health related information.
Breast cancer doesn’t only affect women over 40. Everyone should study their family lineage to see if their family has a history of illnesses. Breast cancer will definitely change your life but you have the ability to make sure that breast cancer doesn’t win. We should all learn that our irrational feelings make us human but they shouldn’t consume us.
These feelings should not be the reason we don’t visit the doctor if we suspect something is wrong. This anxiety has to be destroyed if we ever want to get early detection. In this article, I avoided giving medical advice since I hold no medical degrees. However, I am someone’s daughter, a woman, a friend and I am urging you all to take care of yourselves.
I have read several articles about the rising cases of breast cancer in this country. Like cancer, we have to be aggressive, we have to take action.
We cannot sit back, over-think and pray that this does not happen to us because it can happen even though there is a small chance that it couldn’t. I actually did an interview with a breast cancer survivor and a doctor before writing this article.
Both of them taught me that it is so vital to exercise regularly and to maintain a balanced diet to keep your body functioning well. These two interviews made me recognise that turning a blind eye to a problem doesn’t make it go away. To conclude with this article, I hope you consider all these words that I have written and to make your health your first priority.
Juliana Lopes

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