Nearly 500 women, mostly market women, have benefited from free medical and breast screening from the Health Services Workers Union (HSWU) in Ho, the Volta Regional capital.

The exercise, which was aimed at encouraging women to undergo regular health screening, saw a lot of the women trooping in to have their breasts screened.

Mrs. Harriet Sobuor Amponsah, Head of the Union's Gender Unit in Oti and Volta regions, stated that the union held the program in every region to help women understand their health status, particularly in relation to breast cancer.

Apart from the medical screening, the women were also taken through a series of health training and were also encouraged to go for regular health screening.

Mrs. Amponsah urged the public to take breast cancer seriously and to always go for screening to ensure that they are cancer-free, explaining that "if you go and it's detected early enough, you can go through treatment and save your lives rather than not checking at all."

Chairman of the Union in Volta and Oti regions, Emmanuel Gator, stated that close to 500 women were screened not only for breast cancer but also for other ailments and given medications as needed.

Mr. Gator was impressed by the huge number of women who turned up for the screening and encouraged them to always go for regular health checkups.

The Volta and Oti Regional Chairperson of the HWSU, Mabel Duvor encouraged the married ladies to always allow their husbands to check their breasts at home even if it means regular sucking of the breast.

Mabel Duvor noted that, regular touching and sucking of the breast by their partners will help detect if there is a problem.

"Allowing your partners to touch and suck your breast will also help in the detection of any issue because we women mostly have to look in the mirror when trying to examine our breasts but our partners can help us more than we do to ourselves," Duvor said.

The Union members, comprising about 100 from 15 health centers, earlier on during the day of the screening, had a float through the streets of Ho educating the public on health issues.

The exercise was done with support from Ho Teaching Hospital, Volta Regional and Ho Municipal Health Directorate, Ho Municipal Assembly, Ho Municipal Police Command and Tobinco Pharmaceutical Company.