H O W W E W O R K
The incidence of breast cancer in our country is about 1.25 lac new cases a year. Of these, about 50-60% come in advanced stages. We lose about 50% of these patients to breast cancer while in the west only 20-30% of the total number of patients detected of breast cancer die from it.
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Only one fourth of these patients have access to best medical care whereas most have no access to diagnostics or treatment.
Lack of awareness about the disease and about self is one of the main reasons behind delay in diagnosis. Creating awareness in the community with help from the community health workers, teaching breast self examination and helping them raise appropriate alarms
Lack of expertise and technology prevents the optimum treatment from reaching every nook and corner.
Training of medical personnel can change this scenario.
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Lack of support to the patients causes intense depression and negativity, making the process of treatment and life after that difficult. Hence the need for support groups, counseling etc, which helps one to fight the disease much better
Treatment is often interrupted due to lack of funds. Hence the need to raise funds
New and expensive treatment is out of reach to most people. Hence, the need to encourage indigenous research and developing new but inexpensive molecules.
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Breast cancer does not affect an individual alone. Families are affected as well. On losing a loved one, the family can be devastated both emotionally and financially.
Hence there is a huge need to support and rehabilitate such families.
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Who is spearheading this movement?
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A number of committed champions supported by a group of doctors and volunteers from various walks of life touched by cancer in some form are spearheading this movement.
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What have we done so far?
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We have conducted several large scale mass awareness campaigns in the form of Pink Carnivals, Pink Raahgiri, Pink Prabhatetc since 2015.
We have actively engaged in Support group meetings held in various hospitals.
We held a Fund Raiser program in Oct 2017 and from the funds raised, we have successfully supported a Lymphedema certificate course and 3 patients were supported financially for their treatment.
We are part funding a research project on Triple Negative Breast Cancer being undertaken by a second year DNB student in Surgical Oncology at Max Hospital, Saket.
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We embarked on the “Touch Feel and Do “ women cancer awareness workshops in January 2018 and have conducted 6 workshops so far and aim to perform 30 such workshops in the current year. The response has been tremendous and our calendar is fast filling up with requests to conduct more such workshops. We intend to reach out to as many women as we can through this endeavor.