Breast cancer awareness campaign organised

THATTA: Breast cancer cases have seen an increase in the past few years. The symptoms of this disease are not publically known; therefore, an outreach campaign for awareness and detection of breast cancer was organised by the Kash Welfare Trust in Thatta.

Senior medical specialists from the Aga Khan University Hospital took part in leading and mentoring the local staff in the district to conduct and raise awareness among locals.

The community health workers were trained on how to practice ‘Clinical Breast Examination’ on a silicon breast model with multiple implanted lumps. The content of the educational module and steps of the Breast Self-Examination (BSE) practice, on silicon model, were tested after the training. Individual training of BSE was offered by clinicians in a separate room.

Aga Khan University’s Dr Shaista Afzal said: “We performed ultrasound on women and offered Clinical Breast Examination; we also taught them how they can conduct self-examination at home to get early detection of breast cancer”.

The Kash team provided virtual reality sets for demonstration purposes among the village residents to improve communication of a ‘not so discussed’ issue. Video demos were also dubbed in Sindhi for improved communication and awareness.

Kash Welfare Trust Chairman Adnan Qamar said: “We are dedicated to the prevention and early detection of breast cancer. Working in rural areas is not easy. It’s a real challenge for us. We have to face societal barriers, communication gaps and extremely low literacy levels.”

On the other hand, Aga Khan University’s Dr Uzma Shamsi said: “Through the awareness and self-examination programme offered to community health workers and the locals of villages, I saw women showing interest and participating in the programme, which is an achievement.”