ABP&AW organises lecture on cancer prevention

Rawalpindi

A lecture on the pre and post menopausal issues of women and cancer prevention was delivered by Dr. Rubina Fareed to the members of Association of Business Professional and Agricultural Women here on Friday at Rawalpindi Gymkhana Club. The members were given awareness on the symptoms, preventions and treatment of cancer and management of menopause.

President ABP& AW Tahmeena Malik briefly spoke about ABP&AW. She said that the Association started off with a meager amount initially but now we are lending Rs25,000 to the women entrepreneurs who want to start their own businesses. The association has 19 branches all over Pakistan. “Our small credit scheme has literary changed the lives of these women and they have become the earning member of their families and raising the standard of their living as well as having the decision power in the family. We also want to open a school in Dhoke Kashmirian for children. Every month we invite certain experts on important issues and make our members aware of them. Awareness is the best preventive care for any issue so that it can be managed well in time,” she said.

Dr. Rubina Fareed said that we women are very strong and we go through marriages, child birth, lactation, raising the children etc in life but then a time comes in woman’s life when her youth is gone her children are grown up, their husbands are retiring and all the childbirth and menstruating, hormonal changes takes toll on her health and she reaches menopause at 45-55 years of age and her reproductively is ceased.

There are many issues related to menopause because there are some hormones in females that stops producing and due to which anxiety, insomnia, osteoporosis, obesity and many other problems occur. There are psychological issues, emotional and physical issues. We women have to prepare ourselves for these two years by cutting down fat content and do daily exercises. Eating and walking makes a lot of difference in managing the issue. Our sedentary lifestyle has made our daughters very lazy and they are addicted to the digital world. We need to make them active because at the end of the day there bones will suffer.

Dr. Rubina said that in our society mostly our women are Vitamin D deficient, cabbage, broccoli, milk and eggs, almonds can provide good source of calcium to our bones. Exercise should be done till you become breathless for at least 30 minutes. Volunteer work should also be done by women so that they can serve the underprivileged class. For cancer prevention Dr. Rubina said that after 35 years of age mammongraphy should be done after 3 years and after 45 years of age it should be done every year. Ultrasound, uterus scan, bone test, mammography and peps smear test can save many lives if they are done in time.

Dr. Rubina Fareed practices in Islamabad and deals with the women issues related to maternal health, family planning and Assisted Reproductive Health. She runs a school ‘Light House’ for blind girls in Abbottabad. She’s also the Chairperson of a shelter Home Umeed-e-Noor in H-8, she also provides stationary , uniform and books to out of school children for Sultana Foundation. Now she wants to start an organization to teach Independent Living Skills for blind children. She was honoured Fatima Jinnah Award in 2006 for her tremendous contribution to earthquake victims and again in 2016 she was awarded National Human Rights Award by President Mamnoon Hussain.