Queenmothers raise funds for Mobile Digital Mammography Unit
The Western Regional Queenmothers Association has held a dinner event to raise funds to procure a Mobile Digital Mammography Unit.
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The equipment is to facilitate breast screening for women in deprived and remote communities, who do not have access to health facilities in the region.
The initiative forms part of the campaign by the association dubbed, “Save a Breast Ghana Campaign.”
In a speech read on her behalf, the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, reiterated the need for women to regularly go for breast and cervical cancer check-up.
Report early
She said breast and cervical cancers could be treated when detected and reported early to health facilities, adding that, “Early detection is key to breast cancer survival."
Mrs Mahama, who is the founder of the Lordina Foundation, said breast cancer was the second commonest cancer among women in Ghana, constituting 15 per cent of all cancers and 40 per cent of female cancers.
The First Lady said because there were currently inadequate equipment in public health facilities to conduct mammography (X-ray to check for cancer in the breast), the mobile facility was necessary to support efforts of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to improve on breast and cervical cancer screening services at the district levels where health providers are trained to screen women who visit the health facilities.
“To ensure early detection and prevention, therefore, breast clinics have been set up at the two teaching hospitals, Korle Bu in Accra and Komfo Anokye in Kumasi, and few regional hospitals,” she added.
A wake-up call
Mrs Mahama said her foundation was undertaking advocacy programmes and raising resources towards the fight against breast and cervical cancers both in Ghana and at the international level, and pointed out that the harrowing statistics of breast cancer prevalence, morbidity and mortality in Ghana in particular, and globally, was a wake-up call to all, especially government, politicians, civil society organisations, corporate bodies and international development agencies, to re-think and redouble their afforts and commitment to assisting patients.
The First Lady commended the Western Regional Queenmothers Association for its initiative, which she described as a laudable gesture, and pledged her support for the project.