Close to one thousand teachers and members of the Methodist church drawn from Bibiani and Awaso in the Western region have benefitted from two separately organized free breast screening programs carried out by the medical outreach Team of Breast Care International, (BCI), Africa’s front line campaigner against the debilitating disease.

The Bibiani and Awaso screenings, jointly sponsored by BCI and Delta Airlines, is the third in the series designed to clinically screen over ten thousand women free of charge for the disease, countrywide.

At Bibiani, a chanced encounter with camped faithful of the Methodist church, led by the Bishop, the right reverend Sampson Gyabeng, resulted in an unscheduled counselling and free screening for the enthusiastic church members, as they joined the teachers for the highly successful screening exercise in the town. The faithful also benefitted from a free screening for diabetes and education on some non-communicable diseases.

A component of the BCI/Delta year-long sponsored partnership is the use of medics and para medics to carry out education, counselling, advocacy and free breast screening for members of identifiable groups, aimed primarily at awareness creation, with a long term projection to cause a significant reduction in the number of late stage diseases in the country, reducing mortality and morbidity in the process.

Dr. Mrs. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, who led the team, enjoined community and opinion leaders, the clergy, politicians, and the laity to join the fight against the disease repeating her mantra that, “breast cancer is no respecter of persons, and BCI will not rest on her oars until a breast cancer free generation is secured”.

Dr. Wiafe, who is the President of BCI and doubles as CEO of Peace and Love Hospitals, commended Delta for reaching out to women, and emphasized that “ the sustained awareness creation would enhance visibility of the disease to our  women and embolden them to come out for our pre-emptive free screening, and treatment, if diagnosed”.

Breast cancer survivors present at the event shared their success stories with the gathering.

The questions and answers segment was interactive as Dr. Wiafe addressed several pertinent issues after which the teachers, led by the district director of education, expressed appreciation for the exercise and even called for a repeat, periodic screening.