Breast cancer: 20k women screened as Polaris Bank begins campaign to raise awareness

Polaris Bank says over 20,000 women have been screened for breast cancer in its campaign to raise awareness and research funds to curb the disease among women in Nigeria.

Nduneche Ezurike, head of strategic brand management, said this in a statement on Monday to commemorate breast cancer awareness month.

Breast cancer awareness month is held annually in October to improve public enlightenment on the impact of the disease.

Ezurike said the bank, in partnership with Care Organisation Public Enlightenment (COPE) and Societal Healthcare Organisation (SHO), is working to contribute to the reduction of breast cancer cases in the country.

“In partnership with the aforementioned NGOs, we have covered five key milestones namely; awareness, advocacy, capacity-building, prevention, and treatment in an ongoing effort to reverse the negative impact and trend of the scourge and other related health complications,” he said.

“We have screened over 20,000 women including female staff members of the Bank through our prevention program, donated three ultra-modern breast cancer screening machines to enhance quality diagnosis and clinical practices, sponsored the treatment of over 30 indigent cancer patients, and organized a 10-km walk with over 2,500 participants to draw public attention to the breast cancer scourge.”

Ebunola Anozie, president of COPE, said Polaris has supported the fight against breast cancer for about 20 years through the Screening Counseling Referrals Education, Enlightenment, and Nurturing (SCREEN) initiative.

“For some time, we had difficulty getting the required support for the women. Some of our women used handkerchiefs; some used tissues to fill up their bras. But we are grateful for the timely support of Polaris Bank. They were able to donate prostheses that ensured our breast cancer survivors lived better lives,” Anozie said.

“Polaris Bank also has a number of other initiatives targeted at improving the well-being of the womenfolk in general in the country.

“It recently organized a 3-day intensive capacity-building workshop in Northern Nigeria on life-saving skills for fifty (50) community midwives and health extension workers, randomly selected from 80 percent public and 20 percent private hospitals in Kano state in partnership with SHO.”

Speaking on improving the health of women and children, Mahmoud Dankadai, executive secretary of SHO, said the bank has provided medical facilities such as umbilical cord scissors, latex sterile, gloves, delivery mats, surgical blades, cord clamps, povidone-iodine, baby oil, hand sanitisers and face masks.

Also, Halima Yusuf, patron of the Sisters-Keepers Initiative, said the bank is working to improve girl child education through the provision of learning materials in 13 secondary schools across seven states.

Yusuf listed Kano, Abuja, and Kogi among the states to benefit from the educational support for girls.

“The Bank is currently in its second-year partnership arrangement with Pacegate to uplift the girl-child through the provision of educational supplies in 13 secondary schools across 7 states of the country including Kano, Abuja, and Kogi to curb the impact of global warming on the education of the girl-child who is usually at the receiving end of environmental degradation,” she said.