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Ms Yvonne Dzifa Bedi
Ms Yvonne Dzifa Bedi

‘Use Father’s Day to check prostate status’

Ms Yvonne Dzifa Bedi, one of Ghana's leading independent full-service ‘Stand by your Man’ campaigner, is urging all men to use the occasion of this year’s Fathers’ Day to go for a prostate check.

She has also called on all women to use the occasion to support their men in the fight against prostate cancer by advising them to have their prostate checked.

Ms Bedi has been an ambassador with the Men’s Health Foundation Ghana, a leading charity working with men against prostate cancer, since 2014.

The charity has succeeded in raising awareness during Father's Day celebration in Ghana with various campaigns. 

Awareness Day

The charity, for years now, has been pushing for the declaration of Father's Day as National Prostate Cancer Awareness Day to create awareness of the dire situation that men face in Ghana as far as the health of their prostate is concerned.

For this year's Father's Day, the charity has started its advocacy against the disease with their ambassadors.

Ms Bedi joined the awareness team when she realised how the disease affected men’s sexual lives.

 Her focus in the team was to put the needs of men first. Today, that principle remains the foundation on which Men’s Health Foundation Ghana continues to grow. 

Making a case for the declaration of Fathers’ Day as National Prostate Cancer Day in Ghana, she said the country appeared to have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the whole world, with an estimated number of 921 new cases occurring every year, with 758 of them resulting in death.

The President of Men’s Health Foundation Ghana, Dr Raphael Nyarkotey Obu, who threw more light on the condition, said epidemiological studies had revealed that while the incidence of the disease was 200 out of every 100,000 men in Ghana, it was 127 to every 100,000 in Nigeria and 130 per 100,000 in Cameroun.

Dr Obu said the sub-region was generally recognised as having the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world with Ghana at the epicentre.

Scary statistics

Dr Obu said it was believed that one in five Ghanaian men would get prostate cancer in their lifetime and that seemed to support findings that showed that the black race had a higher propensity for having vitamin D deficiency from the sun-blocking effects of melanin pigmentation which accounted for the dark colour of their skins, and that predisposed black men to developing prostate cancer which was linked to vitamin D deficiency.

He said ambassadors such as Dzifa were helping to raise the necessary awareness of the threat posed by prostate cancer to Ghanaian men but said he believed that the campaign needed to be adopted on a national scale.

“Together, we are committed to making a difference to those individuals and families living with prostate cancer, and to help raise awareness and support for prostate cancer across Ghana and Africa,” Dr Obu said.

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