Breast Cancer: FGGC Old Girls, Silver Cross synergize to create awareness

….urge Nigerians on early detection

….as cancer survivors share experiences

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS non-communicable diseases increase, the Federal Government Girls College, FGGC, Benin City Old Girls Association, Abuja Chapter, synergized with Silver Cross Healthcare and Diagnostics, weekend, to lead a high-level awareness creation on breast cancer prevention and treatment.

The two organisations had a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk in Abuja to mark the 2025 World Cancer Day with the theme ‘United by Unique’.

Speaking in the sidelines of the Walk with Vanguard, the President, FGGC Benin City Old Girls Association, Abuja Chapter and Head, Oncology Pharmacy Department, National Hospital, Dr Iwaeye Osaze-Uzzi, explained that the prevalence and high mortality rate as a result of breast cancer across the country necessitated the breast cancer awareness walk as the month of October is declared Cancer Awareness Month.

Osaze-Uzzi also said the prevention is the best approach to fight against breast cancer, therefore, it is imperative to take the awareness and sensitization to the people, especially, Nigerians at the grassroots.

Meanwhile, to mark the day, on medical checkup was conducted for people who voluntarily came out at the Silver Cross Healthcare and Diagnostics on 20 Durban Street, Wuse 2, which also targeted 50 women for the test, and it was made known that an American based Foundation paid for mammogram services of 10 women.

She said: “I am a girl-child ready to fight cancer and kick it out and tell everyone that cancer is not a death sentence.

“Early detection is the best protection, and October being the month of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are coming with it to educate, make women, men as well be aware of cancer.

“I don’t want to use the word high, but mortality rate is on the increase because of this awareness, a lot of people don’t know about it.

“Go check yourself, at least once a month, if you do the breast examination. So if you notice anything, immediately go to the hospital. They are able to pick it, whether it is malignant or benign.

“Benign meaning it’s not cancerous, malignant meaning it’s cancerous. So they are able to pick it on time, if they see it’s benign, they might remove the lump, and that is the end but if it’s cancerous, they will also go through treatment, remove the lump, and then treatment, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, drug management, and everything. So we are telling people now to detect early because cancer comes in stages.”

She also appealed on the federal government to intervene in take up part of the cost for treating cancer patients, and also urged the State and local governments to get involved to succour cancer patients.

“So we know how expensive these drugs are, so, if the federal government should come in and partner with maybe the pharmaceutical people who are providing these drugs for the patient, let’s say the federal government comes in and says it’s going to be covered by NHIS, for instance, patients pay 10% for the drugs, there could be waivers, there could be patients paying only 10% of the total cost of drugs and the federal government takes care of the rest, it will help, and go a long way to helping the patient, and it will encourage people to come out”, she added.

Meanwhile, speaking on the International Day of the Girl-child, she said parents, families, communities and the country at large needs to do more for the girl-child in terms of her education.

“If you educate a girl child, you have educated the community because girls are natural mothers. You just find a little girl, even a two-year-old girl, you see her wanting to feed, carry her dull as if she wants to feed it. She already has a maternal instinct, she already knows what to do.

“So you can imagine if we keep educating the girl children, making things available to them, making them aware of who they are and what they can do, you can imagine how our country will be. Our country will be a better place.

“So all this still boils down to our federal government. Once it starts cascading from the federal government, it goes to the state, it goes to the local government, it goes to the traditional rulers.

“We are doing them together because it’s coming up at the same time. But we are doing something for our little sisters in school next week. We have a project for them. We are going back to Benin. We are going back to Federal Government Girls College, Benin City, make them aware of who they are, the power they have, and then we are going to talk about the same breast cancer”, she said.

Also speaking was the Administrator, Silver Cross Healthcare and Diagnostics, Augustine Onoriode, who said the collaboration between the hospital and FGGC Old Girls Association, Benin City, Abuja Chapter, became imperative as they were out to create the awareness of breast cancer in the direction of prevention through early detection, treatment and defeating it was in line with the vision and mission of his organization.

He said the hospital welcomes partnerships that are in line with what it stands for in delivering the best of healthcare services to the people, therefore, supports such awareness creation as done by the Association.

“Silver Cross Healthcare and Diagnostics is a facility known for collaborations, and as a matter of fact, we know that collaboration is the new innovation, and one of our logos is “together we can save lives”.

“Why we partnered with FGGC Old Girls Association, Benin, Abuja Chapter is we found out that what they were trying to do is in line with our goals in healthcare, in terms of prevention.

“So we decided to work with them since they are non-medical and we are the clinical organization, so such collaboration works best.

“Today is to create that awareness that breast cancer is real, and it is prevented by early detection and that is what we are doing for free breast check and prevention”, he said.

According to him, there is an increase in breast cancer cases across the country, “The evidence of cancer in Nigeria has become so rampant like malaria. As a matter of fact, people don’t pay attention to early detection. Unfortunately, for in this part of the world people believe in treatment and not prevention.

“For us at Silver Cross being a multi-specialty hospital, we have a surge of patients coming in, and we have an oncologist who also sees these patients, and one of the reasons for this partnership is instead of treating and why not prevent”, he said.

He also added it is important to strictly observe preventive measures against cancers including routine health checks, regular exercise, being careful with the kind of food and drinks consumed, checks on heart and blood pressure, and visit the nearest medical facility when symptoms develop.

“Breast cancer is not a dead sentence because it can be treated”, he stated.

During a public awareness talk, a resource person who is an oncologist at the National Hospital, Dr Ella Nwachukwu, extensively sensitized participants at the awareness creation gathering on how to personally detect breast lump that degenerates to a cancer.

Dr Nwachukwu also said the myth of no treatment of cancer is not true, and she urged Nigerians to quickly visit the hospital to carry out the necessary tests and treatment for it not to endanger their lives.

According to her, men also come down with breast cancer, but it is not rampant as in women because of the body chemistry of women and their mensural cycles.

“The lump with breast cancer is usually painless, okay? It’s usually painless. You would have a painless breast lump.It’s only as it starts to increase in size that sometimes you may have pain along with it.

“So it’s not something that would ordinarily drag your attention to say, there’s something there. But if you search and you find it, please just reach out to say, let me see if a clinician who can examine and confirm if what I’m feeling is truly there.

“But most of the time, it’s really not. What are the risk factors that make someone predisposed to developing breast cancer? The first one is being a woman.

“Men do have breast cancer. I do have male patients that I’m treating with breast cancer, but the ratio is 99 to 1. So in other words, it is only under 1% of cases of breast cancer that are in men. So being a woman is a high risk factor.

“And as you age, is the second high risk factor.Now those are two non-modifiable, in other words, you can’t do anything about it. You can’t help but age and you can’t help but be a woman.

“So these are things that are out of your control.If they are out of your control, you can’t really change anything. But let’s look at the ones that are modifiable, the ones that may be within, no, there are others that are still not within our control.

“So sometimes they will say early menarche, beginning to see your menses early. It’s not in your control. You’re not choosing when you want to start, and then late menopause, you are equally not able to choose when you want to stop.So those are other risk factors that are not in our control.

“But when it comes to the ones that are in our control, we can now look at other biases.

“Alcohol, fatty diets, not exercising, not ambulating, being a ‘couch potato’, staying in one place. So we advocate for all these things to say these are modifiable factors that you can use to be able to reduce your chances”, she stated.

Also, some breast cancer survivors shared their experiences and testimonies on how they were able to overcome breast cancer.

They encouraged women to take the bull by the horns and move on to fight and conquer cancer and not to hide it and go on self-medications instead go to the hospital and meet with experienced doctors for treatment.

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