| Pink Lily will celebrate
World Cancer Day on Thursday February 4th by launching
a Breast Screening Programme (BSP) after raising a total
of EC$25,000 that will enable 100 women to have mammograms.
Each mammogram will cost Pink Lily EC$200.
The launch of the
program is part of a series of activities planned
in the month of February when the charity celebrates
its second birthday. "We have chose to launch
the program on World Cancer Day whose theme is Cancer
Can Be Prevented Too because we agree and support
the theme," the founder and executive director
Lea Parris-Cambridge has said.
The launch of the
mammogram program will be at the Memorial Square in
Charlestown. Members of the public, she said, can
pick up free literature and talk to Pink Lily volunteers
at a tent to be mounted at the Square. According to
experts, each year, over 12 million people receive
a cancer diagnosis and 7.6 million die of the disease.
"The good news
is that approximately 40 per cent of cancers are potentially
preventable," said Lea Parris-Cambridge. She
said the charity which she launched two years ago
has created awareness of all cancers to help the public
know the value of early screening. She constantly
repeats in her public lectures that "Cancer is
not a death sentence." She said the mammograms
will be done at a clinic in St. Kitts that has a mammogram
machine, adding that women who go through the Pink
Lily program will be given pre- and post-counseling.
"Should they
be diagnosed with breast cancer, Pink Lily volunteers
will follow them up."Pink Lily has consulted
widely with the medical personnel in the Federation
to organize the Breast Screening Programme, Lea Parris-Cambridge
noted." We have had one to one consultations
with private and government doctors to see how best
we can assist women at risk of getting breast cancer.
The women will be
recommended for mammograms through their physicians
or through direct contact with Pink Lily. Women who
go for mammograms through the Pink Lily coordinated
BSP will feel a form that has been evaluated by several
medical personnel in the Federation," Lea Parris-Cambridge,
a breast cancer survivor said.Pink Lily has in the
past given financial support to women in St. Kitts
who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and cervical
cancer through its general donations.
The targeted amount
the charity has set to raise in order to screen 200
women is EC50,000 in the Pink Lily BSP first phase.
Lea Parris-Cambridge regretted the delay in implementing
the mammogram program and said the charity had to
consult widely with the ministries of health and the
medical personnel before launching the project. She
thanked all those who have donated to the charity.
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