Islamabad : First Lady Begum Samina Alvi on Tuesday urged all sections of society to join hands to raise awareness of breast cancer for its prevention and control.
During a breast cancer awareness event at the Islamabad Model College for Girls here, the first lady sad every year, around 100,000 women in Pakistan were diagnosed with breast cancer, so timely diagnosis was direly needed.
She said in every 13 minutes, a woman in Pakistan was diagnosed with breast cancer with an alarming 45 per cent mortality rate.
Begum Alvi said 90 per cent of such women could recover from the disease with help of early screening and diagnosis.
She said raising awareness among women about self-diagnosis could save thousands of precious lives.
"Not only the women patients, she said, the painful disease with expensive treatment also affected their close ones in form of psychological and financial trauma."
The first lady said every woman should spread the word about breast cancer prevention and control to at least 10 other women.
She said the awareness campaign would not only limit to the month of October but would continue throughout the year as well.
Begum Alvi urged male members of the family to realise the suffering attached to the disease and support women to get proper medical care.
She said women in the country were playing a vital role in all fields of life, adding that it was important to be concerned about their well-being.
The first lady said all members of society, particularly men, to join hands in raising awareness about breast cancer.
She lauded the role of media in spreading the word on breast cancer through special television programmes and newspaper articles.
Earlier, IMCG Principal Aliya Durrani highlighted the college's activities and called for better awareness among girl students of ways to prevent breast cancer.