145 screened for cancer at Think Pink awareness walk
About 145 women on Saturday underwent breast and cervical cancer screening to commemorate the Fifth Annual Think Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Walk.
The walk attracted around 600 people, out of whom 65 women were screened for cervical cancer and 80 for breast cancer.
Only one suspicious case for cervical cancer was found and was treated on the spot with thermo-coagulation, a screen and treat process involving heat to treat pre-cancer lesions.
Think Pink Malawi founder Blandina Khondowe said most women in the country are living with breast and cervical cancer but are not aware of it.
Khondowe, a breast cancer survivor herself, said the Think Pink initiative seeks to encourage screening for early detection of cancers to save lives.
She said: “The problem with people in Malawi is that we do not want to talk about these things and so we see people dying because there is not enough sensitisation on such topics.”
The walk also attracted other prominent women in society such as Vice-President Saulos Chilima’s wife, Mary Chilima.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Chilima applauded the Think Pink initiative for engaging women and men to be proactive in the fight against cancer.
She said: “I salute Think Pink for coming up with this initiative. It’s way overdue for Malawians to raise awareness for breast and cervical cancer mainly because many women in the country die from these curable diseases.”
The Think Pink iniative organises the annual awareness walk to bring together women and encourage them to go for breast and cervical cancer screening. n
