Think Pink Malawi founder Blandina Khondowe says her organisation seeks to reach out to more women, especially in the rural areas, for early breast cancer screening awareness to prevent breast cancer at an early stage.
She made the remarks on Saturday after the annual Think Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Walk in Lilongwe to raise awareness on the importance of early screening of the same to women.
Said Khondowe: “We are targeting the rural women to go for screening. It is good to know how you are at an early stage than waiting until the disease gets you because treatment becomes difficult and in Malawi we have less facilities that do that. So, if an early detection is done, we can save a lot more women as the treatment is expensive.”
The former Miss Malawi and a breast cancer survivor said Think Pink has currently helped 30 women go through treatment using the funds they raise.
The walk had participants from all walks of life who walked from the Parliament Building to the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre.
German Ambassador Jurgen Borsch, who participated in the walk, said breast cancer is an issue of concern that people need to get serious with.
He said: “I am happy that the Think Pink campaign promotes early screening, it is much better to get an early detection than to treat, so I participated in this walk to stand for those women.”
Lilongwe City Central member of Parliament David Bisnowaty, who was the guest of honour, called upon people to go for early screening to know if they have cancer or not.
The Think Pink initiative has generated interest since its inception four years ago. It promotes early detection of breast cancer for treatment.
Apart from the awareness walk, women who participated were treated to free screening of both breast and cervix cancer. There were also live performances by renowned gospel musician Patience Namadingo and the Mibawa Band. n
