IWD: IWEF, others partner Eko Hospital to fight cancer, screen 5, 000 women

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) tomorrow, stakeholders in the healthcare sector have identified the need for effective collaboration to address health issues affecting women, such as cancer.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, with an estimated 9.6 million deaths and 17 million new cases recorded worldwide in 2018. Another report showed that, while 30 to 50 percent of cancers could be prevented, young women diagnosed with the disease might face financial hardship due to costs related to care.

To this end, the Inanna Women Empowerment Foundation (IWEF) has partnered with Eko Hospital, alongside other non-governmental organisations to offer free cervical cancer screening to over 10, 000 women in Lagos, as part of efforts to stem the scourge of cancer.

The Board of Directors, IWEF, Oyinlola Mamudu said that as women are important in nation building, ignoring their health could be disastrous and in order to reduce the burden of cancer, the foundation, which focuses on women empowerment, partnered with the hospital to eradicate cancer amongst women. She said they have set aside project to help sensitise women on the various cancer awareness programmes, adding that government cannot do it alone, as collaboration among stakeholders in healthcare is needed to save women and their health.

On his part, Chief Executive Director, Eko Corp Plc., Dr. Owoyele Ademolu, stressed the dearth of technology in the country with regards to facilities for diagnosing, treatment and cancer management, saying cancer has become a menace and needs prompt intervention to stem it. He said the hospital, as part of efforts to help fight this issue, set up a cancer management facility and installed a cancer machine costing over N500 million to treat cancer.

Ademolu said, as part of the hospital’s corporate social reasonability initiative, it partnered with the bodies to enable women have access to cancer screening and treatment in Lagos.

One of the beneficiaries, Helen Michael, said the free screening would help in early detection and treatment of cancer, as most women are deterred by the cost of cancer care, which has contributed to the rise of deaths in the country.