The Rotary Club of Ikoyi under District 9110 covering Lagos and Ogun states; has partnered Sarah Ayoka Oduwaiye Foundation to make available opportunity for women of the densely populated Obalende area of Lagos State to have their breasts screened for cancer. South West Editor, JOHN SILAS reports.
Over 300 women were expected to be screen at the programme which took place at the Obalende Local Council Development Area (LCDA) on Friday, December 1, 2023.
To understand the importance attachéd to the exercise by the Rotary International, the District Governor, District 9110, Ify Rita Ejezie, was physically present to monitor and assess the screening.
Apart from the screening of the women for breast cancer, they were also screened for HIV, the day being the World’s AIDS Day
Speaking to Journalists, the District Governor stated that the choice of Obalande is not unconnected with the dense population of the area and the fact that it is a market area. “Obalende is a densely populated area, some are ignorant of the fact that they need to check themselves, some know but due to lack of finance, they would not want to do that, and some ordinarily don’t have the habit of going for checkups until sickness comes. So what we are doing which is our way of giving back to society is to give them an opportunity to get tested and to know their health status, and that is what the president and members of Rotary Club of Ikoyi, one of the most vibrant clubs in the district, is doing here today.
“Obalende is also where you have market women that would take advantage of this opportunity. So I am here to overseer what they are doing and to be sure it is going on well,” Ejezie stated.
Ejezie has kind words for the Rotary Club of Ikoyi saying “The club is one of the most vibrant clubs under the district and they know what they are doing. We have seven areas of focus, the eight one is on mental health, so this is in health. What they are doing is disease prevention and treatment; it is the month of December, so how better than to check women with breast cancer. Some may have lumps they would no know, some may already have a bloated cancer in them and they wouldn’t know until it gets serious, and we all know that early detection leads to early cure and some people have been saved from it because it was dictated early, so they are doing this today to have the women ascertain their health status, and if anything at all, maybe lump, they can advise the women for further processes on what needs to be done to save them from full blown cancer that would not be easy to cure.”
She asserted that government can come in many ways to assist, “We are calling on government of Lagos State and Ogun State, Rotary has done so much for the people of Lagos and Ogun states, so it is time for them to partner. Imagine if the Lagos State is partnering with this screening, this project would cover the whole of Lagos State, all communities. IKoyi Club as a club may not have all the necessary resources to cover everywhere, and that is why they are in Obalende alone. If government as joined us and empowered us, we have the machinery, Rotary has a veritable platform to do this, we could have covered all the communities in Lagos State with this breast cancer screening, but we can only do to the extent to which our finances can carry.”
Funsho Gbogboade, current President, Rotary Club of Ikoyi on her part stated that it is wrong for women to allow suffer from breast cancer when it can easily be detected and cured, and that was the reason Rotary pumps money on issues relating to breast cancer. Rotary pays attention to breast because they believe that prevention is better than cure, “Actually we believe that prevention is better and even cheaper than cure, a lot of cases that could have been prevented if only they are aware. We are creating awareness for women so that they can be checking their breasts every morning, if they feel anything unusual they can come around. We have done counseling for them this morning, and then by the time you get to the hospital and you see cases that nothing can be done, it is too late, you pity the situation, something that can be prevented has now worsened, bringing too much palaver in the family, in the society, in the nation, worldwide. So that is why we have taken it upon ourselves to put in a lot of money into this proggramme.”
On how the club was able to mobilise the women to attend the screening, Gbogboade disclosed that the club employed the services of town criers. “The club employed the services of town criers to go round the vicinity, including markets, barracks to have meetings with Olojas. We are expecting nothing less than 200 women, even though we prepared for 300.”
Gbogboade said that the phase one of the screening was done at the General Hospital Lagos, where over 400 women were screened and during the exercise, three cases were detected, adding that the phase three of the screening would be at the Annual Conference of the district in Abeokuta.
She thanked Obalende LCDA for providing them with free venue and generator to ensure uninterrupted power supply throughout the exercise; Eko Electricity Distribution Company for sponsoring the day’s programme, Professor Samson Afolabi, Founder of Hope for Youths at Work Foundation for co-sponsoring the programme and Mrs Tolu Onolaja, a Rotarian from Ogudu, who also supported the programme by her donations.
Dr Akintayo Akintoba Adebayo, the Medical Officer of Obalende LCDA and also the Director of Health Planning Research and Statistics for Lagos State Health District Three said the exercise was to screen for any suspicious lump that may eventually develop into breast cancer. “If it is discovered early and appropriate investigation is done, they will be fine.”
Adebayo disclosed that the screening in three fold “It is three in one, we are doing HIV screening free of charge, secondly we are doing integrated medical outreach that includes checking their blood sugar, to see if they have diabetes, we are also checking to see if they have hypertension. Diabetes and hypertension is still one of the leading causes of sudden death all over the world. But other places where they are knowledgeable on how to take care of themselves, what we called the concept of self-care, the mortality or the death cases reduce, but over here people are just ignorant, they are only interested in stomach infrastructure, not maintaining health as a priority. That is one of the issues we have in this country. We would not be discouraged, with Rotary, and some other well-meaning Nigerians, other organisations, by the time we continually engage people, bring information to them, do a lot of health promotion campaigns, with time, gradually people will get to know and understand the reason why it is important.”
On what can be done to eliminate breast cancer, he said that eternal vigilance is the word. “You must watch out for it, by screening yourself, by avoiding those things that would enable you to have it. People should run away from fatty foods, I am not saying they should not eat fatty food, but anything that is not taken in moderation would lead to crisis. That is in the area of breast cancer. The other one is indiscriminate use of drugs; there are some drugs that can trigger the cascading of events that may eventually lead to lumpy things in the breast, and if they are not discovered early enough may progress to full blown cancer and by which time it may be late. So screening is the only thing by which it can be discovered.”
He dismissed the fears expressed by the public that machines used for breast cancer screening bring causes cancer. “That is ignorance. For instance, I recall that when mobile phone first came in; there were a lot of misconceptions about whether it causes cancer or whatever. The point is that the dose you take is what determines it. Some people would like to sleep and put the phone on their head for 24 hours, 24/7 and for 365 days. In the process those of radiation that gets to the brain is higher. But what we are using is just illumination; we can demonstrate it for you. It is harmless, it doesn’t cause problem to the people.”
He advised the women to seek medical opinion if they discover any strange lumps in their breasts.
Mrs Comfort, one of the women whose breasts were screened, disclosed that the exercise was actually the second time she was being screened for breast cancer and she encouraged encouraged other women to take issue of their breasts seriously. “The exercise is okay, I am excited for being part of the programme, I didn’t pay any dime to do the screening. I want to say a big thank you for this great opportunity they granted us because doing it at public or private hospitals it is going to take a lot of money, very expensive, so for them to bring it down to this place free of charge, I want to tell them thank you, and may God continue to bless them and enlarge their coast in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.”
Christy Okonkwo a youth corpper serving at Etiosa Local Government Area was also screened. She said she felt blessed for the good opportunity offered by Rotary to screen her breasts. “I have never done it in my life, this is the first time, seeing the process, I have done it and everything went well, I don’t have any lump in my breasts.”
