The Executive Director of Crime Check Foundation (CCF), Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng has indicated that the fight against breast cancer must not be a yearly fight but must be an everyday agenda to save lives.
This he said is because the disease is deadly and claims more lives than any other illness.
Mr. Kwarteng said this when he was hosted on Peace FM’s ‘Mpom Te Sen’ show to narrate how he lost his wife, Amina Oppong Kwarteng to the disease and to announce an action plan dubbed, the ‘Meena Breast Cancer Awareness’ project to help sustain the war against the canker.
According to him the yearly advocacy on the disease seems not to yield the needed result as many women become aware of themselves only during the breast cancer awareness month of October.
He said the fight must be consistent throughout the year to be able to combat breast cancer-related deaths.
“The disease breaks families apart. The cost of treatment involved is huge and the chance of survival of a patient is narrow so we want to fight breast cancer every day and not only in October. The yearly advocacy is not sustainable,” he said.
Mr. Kwarteng said apart from the advocacy, breast cancer patients would also be supported financially to undergo treatment under the project.
“We would go to female prisons, villages, towns to drum home the advocacy to do early examination and screening of the breast. The project would be run alongside CCF’s Health Check Series to support patients undergoing treatment. We cannot win this war alone, so we would need the support of the general public to be able to carry out the campaign effectively,” he appealed.
Detailing how his wife, Mrs. Kwarteng succumbed to the disease, Mr. Kwarteng said the campaign was an initiative she intended to champion if she got well but the unfortunate happened. This he said has inspired him to execute the dream of her wife relentlessly.
“I am going to do this till I depart this earth,” he vowed.
The ‘Meena Breast Cancer Awareness’ project is due for launching on October 6, 2022, at the Old Labour Hall in Accra.
By Rudolph Nandi
