Marking the beginning of the International Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the US Consulate General, Hyderabad and the Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation (UBF) on Thursday announced the launch of the Pink Ribbon Campaign 2012. The foundation would be organising the walk for the fourth consecutive year at KBR Park at 6 am on October 7.
US Consul General Katherine Dhanani said, “Our participation salutes women cancer survivors and encourages those fighting the disease not to give up. We walk together to show our solidarity and commitment to spread the word about early detection.” Former cricketer VVS Laxman, recollecting his experience at the Sydney Cricket Ground earlier this year, where the whole crowd had turned pink showing solidarity with the McGrath Foundation, said he would be present at the park on Sunday.
Dr Raghu Ram, CEO and director of UBF said, “with the aim of ensuring early detection of breast cancer and ensuring long-term survival, UBF has trained 1,200 health care workers in August to perform clinical breast examination (CBE), a screening tool to detect early breast cancer.” According to him, these trained health care workers were in the process of performing CBE to 50,000 underprivileged women living in nine mandals of Hyderabad district. “This pilot project will be conducted between October and December. Women with signs of breast cancer will be referred to the nearest primary health centre. Women with no abnormalities will be examined again in two years. Data will be maintained by UBF with the help of TCS,” he added.
Further he said that 100,000 women were being diagnosed with breast cancer every year and that the numbers are expected to increase to 1.3 lakh by 2020. “Many breast cancer cases are not reported to the Cancer Registry & many States including AP do not have a robust Cancer Registry. UBF intends to work alongside the Government of AP in developing a robust Breast Cancer Registry in this region in the forthcoming years,” he said.