Cancer Survivors: NGO says early detection key to cure

Project Pink Blue, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has identified early detection as key to cancer cure.

The Executive Director of the project, Mr Runcie Chidebe, said this while congratulating cancer survivors at the Cancer Survivors Conference 2021 in Abuja with the theme: “Is Cancer Curable?.”

He said “cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body.”

He listed areas where cancer could affect to include the lung, colon, breast, prostate and the skin.

The executive director, who noted that efforts must be done to educate people on the symptoms of the disease, explained that when detected early, it could be cured and be managed well.

Dr Fatima Cardoso, the President of ABC Global Alliance, a cancer organisation based in Portugal, also emphasised that cancer could be cured when detected early.

She added that “cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells.”

The expert, who is also an advocate, noted that access to high quality care was also key to survival.

Mrs Catherine Uttazi, a metastatic breast cancer survivor, who described cancer as a death sentence, said “I remembered a woman in my Church who died six months after contracting cancer.

“From then, I started examining myself regularly, until one day as I was going to work, I noticed a lump in my breast.

“Immediately, I decided to go to the hospital and conducted a test and commenced my treatment after cancer was confirmed.

“At a time, I had to tell the doctor that I wish to die from gunshot because I can’t withstand the pains of cancer.”

Uttazi stated that her meeting with a 10- year old survivor gave her courage that helped her to survive the ugly disease.

Another survivor, Miss Ugonna Okere, in her experience, said that early detection of cancer saved her life.

Okere said she also discovered a lump in her left breast, which prompted her for a surgery, adding that she never knew it was cancerous.

“It was after the surgery that I went for histology and the result came out positive.

“I then went for chemotherapy which is the most painful aspect of the treatment and then the surgery.”

Supreme reports that some cancer supportive items donated by the German Breast Cancer Association and ABC Global Alliance, Portugal, were distributed among the survivors and some cancer patients.