STRATEGIC SBCCN CAMPAIGN ATTRACTS SCORES IN MBABANE

Scores of people at the bus rank during the launch.

MBABANE – The plan for the 2014 Swaziland Breast and Cervical Cancer Awareness month launch was strategic and managed to attract scores of people at the Mbabane Bus Rank yesterday.

Both men and women crammed the area to listen to messages that were being disseminated.
The launch marks the beginning of awareness activities to take place during the entire month of October.
Minister of Health Sibongile Simelane said breast and cervical cancer was a serious public health issue that affected the well-being of women and their families.

Simelane said the Ministry of Health was pleased that the country was visibly joining the rest of the world to commemorate October as the breast cancer awareness month and to intensify public education and increase awareness about the cancer.

The minister said breast and cervical cancer were conditions whose causes were still unknown. She said, however, there were factors that increase the risk of one getting the diseases. These she said included a progressive increase in unhealthy lifestyle practices such as an improper diet, lack of exercise, excessive intake of alcohol and tobacco with its related illnesses and risk factors.
She highlighted, however, that some people were diagnosed with breast cancer without exposure to any of the abovementioned risks.

Factors

Simelane said some risk factors were avoidable while others like family history were not, hence taking protective steps like getting regular check- ups, maintaining a healthy body weight and balanced diet may help lower the chances of developing breast cancer.

“As the world has still not found a cure for the disease, the best we can do is prevent it from occurring or detect it early,” the minister said.
She said the only thing that could be done when people were empowered with the requisite knowledge is to ensure they are able to minimise the impact of the disease.

Men

 “May I emphasise that men can also get breast cancer, so let’s be responsible,” she said.
SBCCN Chairperson Teresa Rehmeyer said, as a network, she trusted that as they did what they had been called to do, which is raising awareness, screening and advocating on the patients’ behalf, they have been instrumental in saving lives from the awful disease.

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