The Chief of Savelugu, Yoo Naa Abdullah has called for the extension of breast cancer treatment campaign to rural parts of Northern Ghana.

According to him, in as much as there is education on breast cancer, women in the rural are very adamant about issues concerning health and usually wait until their cases are aggravated.

The Yoo Naa made this appeal when his friends, consisting of doctors and nurses, held a health screening exercise to commemorate his 55th birthday.

During the exercise, he asked that the healthcare campaign must be extended to the hinterlands where people do not have access to quality healthcare.

"The campaign will draw awareness to the dangers of breast cancer so that people can understand the need to visit the hospital at its initial stages. The cost for medication is less costly at this point," he said.

The Yoo Naa also revealed that most of the women that came in to be attended to were from places with poor health facilities, adding that the matter is to be handled by the state with all urgency.

He donated Gh¢4,000 to one of the women who was diagnosed with breast cancer and appealed to Ghanaians to support her with more funds to enable her complete her treatment.

About 341 cases of breast cancer were recorded at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) in the Northern Region between 2015 and 2019 out of a total 1,167 breast specimens received.

Team Leader of the medical outreach, Professor Der Muonir Edmund, a pathologist at the TTH said most of the cancer cases recorded in the region come in advance stages. He attributed this to the lack of mass screening.

Prof. Der Muonir said most of the cases affected young women below 40 years, and added that 10 women out of over 100 screened women had problems with their breast.