Priortise health care over money — Breast care CEO
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Breast Care International (BCI), Dr (Mrs) Beatrice Wiafe-Addai, has advised women not to allow the desire for money to stifle their efforts to seek regular health care.
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She explained that although it was good to improve their businesses, it was important for them to take time off their businesses to seek health care to help them live longer to support their families and businesses.
Cancer awareness
Mrs Wiafe-Addai said this when she spoke at the maiden cancer awareness and health screening at Obuasi.
The screening session was organised by the AngloGold Ashanti Health Foundation and Breast Care International to create a platform to advance the cause of fighting against cancers that affect women in the Obuasi Municipality.
It brought together more than 500 women from Obuasi and its surrounding communities.
Four hundred and fifty-four women were screened. Six of them had lumps in their breasts, five had discharge from their breasts, while four were diagnosed with severe pains in the breasts. They were referred to the Peace and Love Hospital in Kumasi for further examination.
Three men who took part in the screening were also referred to the Peace and Love Hospital after it was discovered that they had lumps in their breasts.
More than 50 women who were above 40 years and had never been screened for breast cancer were also advised to go for mammography to detect any sign of breast cancer.
The event was also used to screen the people for blood sugar, high blood pressure and other health issues.
Dr (Mrs) Wiafe-Addai said the issue of cancer affecting women should be seen as a national one, since anything that affected women affected society in general, and stressed the need for cancer to be seen as a public health concern and not an individual problem.
The BCI CEO described the lack of awareness of cancers as a major challenge in the fight against the control of the disease and charged women to report any form of abnormality in their body to the hospital for further examination.
The Sustainability Manager of AngloGold Ashanti, Nana Ampofo-Bekoe, said quality healthcare delivery had been an agenda of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi mines for decades and that led to the formation of AngloGold Ashanti Health Foundation.
He pledged the company’s unflinching support for the development and welfare of people in its operational area, stressing that AngloGold had over the years spearheaded a massive HIV and AIDS campaign, as well as a malaria control programme which had made great impact in the Obuasi Municipality and beyond.
A gyneacologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dr Rex Djokoto, said women were prone to many health issues because of their make-up. He, therefore, urged them to take good care of themselves by adopting good eating habits.