As part of commemorations for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, St Anne’s Hospital workers today held a breast cancer awareness walk in Harare’s Avondale surburb to conscientize society on the importance of early screening and detection.
The annual global campaign held in October aims to raise awareness on breast cancer, now one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
In an interview with 263Chat, St Anne’s General Manager Sister Mary Mugodzeri urged women to get screened early given that breast cancer is now the second most common cancer among women in Zimbabwe.
“Today we are preaching the gospel that early detection saves lives, If you find yourself with any symptoms that you do not understand please seek medical attention,” she said .
She added that, “on this awareness program we are screening cancer for free and also raising hope for other people who might find themselves living with cancer so that they can know that if you are found with cancer there is still hope that you can survive,” she said.
St Anne’s Hospital matron Lydia Doro also told 263Chat that they offering cancer screening among other medical services to the public.
“One of our core business is to help educate the population of Zimbabwe, those who are in unreachable areas, to be aware of breast cancer, because we are on wheels, we go to where the people are, so we are bringing health education, and the actual breast cancer screening, physical screening, and then referring for any other further investigations,” said Doro.
Between 2009 and 2018, cancer cases in Zimbabwe have almost doubled, according to the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, a total of 16,083 new cancer cases were recorded in Zimbabwe in 2020, with the most frequently occurring cancer among Zimbabwean women being cervical cancer at 29.4 percent, followed by breast cancer at 17.9 percent.
