Thousands of enthusiastic Senior High School students of Mpraeso and Bepong in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region have benefitted from a free Breast Cancer Education and screening exercise organized by Breast Care International, (BCI), and Peace and Love Hospitals (PHLs), in collaboration with the National Service Secretariat.

The free screening formed part of activities marking the National Association of Service Personnel week, 2019, for the Kwahu south district, and was on the theme, ‘Youth involvement in National Development’.

Addressing the participants, who numbered over one thousand, two hundred, including service personnel, at the Mpraeso Senior High School, celebrated breast cancer surgeon, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, President of BCI, and CEO, Peace and Love Hospital, said it was important to integrate the youth into the campaign against breast cancer because in her words, “they are potent agents of change, to whom the future belongs.”

The event, in character, was preceded with a lecture by Dr. Wiafe Addai on the signs, symptoms, risk factors, methods of investigation and finally, the available treatment options for breast cancer patients.

The medical team demonstrated to the students, the proper ways of performing breast self-examination.

Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai addressed several frequently asked questions and stressed that early detection was key to treatment and cure, and warned “delay in reporting to hospitals with late, and end-stage conditions could have catastrophic results”.

Some breast cancer survivors also shared their experiences and assured the gathering the disease is both curable and survivable.

The survivors advised the attentive students to be brand ambassadors of the disease in their respective communities. Six hundred and fifty students were screened, and fifty-two of them were diagnosed with lumps in their breasts and were referred for further management.