Call centre for breast cancer awareness set up

LAHORE: First Lady Samina Arif Alvi on Tuesday said that a call centre had been established in Karachi which would help provide information about breast cancer to women especially to those who were shy to discuss this decease with lady doctors.

Addressing the concluding ceremony of “Breast Cancer Awareness” campaign here at Shoukat Khanum Hospital, she said the call centre facility would soon be extended to other cities of the country.

She said that breast cancer mortality rate could be contained through awareness and for this purpose, public and private sectors would have to play their due role.

She said that as per the latest research, breast cancer was not only being diagnosed among women over 45 years of age but also young girls and even men were also being diagnosed with this disease, adding that women and men should not hesitate to talk with their family members about such kind of diseases.

She said that some government and private hospitals were providing free treatment to the patients of breast cancer who could not afford their expenses.

She urged the media to play its role effectively for awareness campaign in their programmes by giving air time to cancer patients, survivors and specialist medical experts to guide the public on the issue and organize programmes on weekly or monthly basis other than October.

Samina Alvi also urged the women to be vigilant about the initial symptoms and risk factors of breast cancer as thousands lost their lives every year due to unawareness.

She shared her upcoming campaign scheduled, where she would be visiting Gilgit-Baltistan, Multan, Peshawar and other cities to create awareness through seminars in collaboration with schools, colleges and NGOs.

According to United Nation report, she said that one million women diagnosed with Breast Cancer annually, out of which 45 percent could not survive and they lost their lives. She advised women to go for screening so as to identify breast cancer as early as possible.