October is the Cancer Awareness month for Nigeria. To mark the 2008 Nigeria’s Cancer Awareness month, Africa Cancer Care Inc. (ACCI) conducted yet another cancer medical program. This time our program was conducted in Kaduna and Cross River States. The Cancer Awareness program was kicked off with a ‘Walk-A-Thorn’. This is the first cancer awareness walk of its kind in Abuja. Her Excellency, Hajiya Turai Umaru Yar’Adua, the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was there to kick of the event which took place on October 11, 2008 at the Millennium Park. The walk started from that part of the park adjacent to the Transcorp Hotel, passed the Eagle Square, the Federal Ministry of Health, and returned back to the Millennium Park through the entrance on the Opposite side.
Approximately 2 plus miles were covered during which the crowd led by the First Lady of Nigeria, the president of ACCI, Dr. Eucharia Iwuanyanwu, the acting for Federal Minster of Health, Dr. Hassan Lawal, the CEO of CAMAC International and Allied Energy of Nigeria, Dr. Kase Lawal, several other Nigerian high officials, and organization leaderships, walked to the music provided by the band of the Federal Road Safety commission. Also present was the ACCI team from US, other Nigerian NGO’s as Ego Bakee Breast Cancer Foundation, Equal Rights for Persons With Disabilities International, Breast Without Spot, the Albino Foundation, Life Shift Initiatives, to mention a few including various government organizations located in Abuja. Some of the NGOs had their own floats. Participation from the general public was quite impressive. The turn out was great for a first time event.
Speeches were made before the walk during which the Dr. Iwuanyanwu said that the key to halting the current scourge caused by late presentation of cancer victims in Nigeria and the predicted epidemic by the year 2020 is cancer awareness, prevention, and early detection. She stressed grass-root awareness, the need for screening centers throughout the country, capacity building as exemplified by training of physicians from Nigeria that will commence at MD Anderson Cancer Center starting January, 2009, and the building of a Cancer Center of Excellence in Nigeria. The Minister for Health confirmed that the Ministry now sees cancer as a challenge and is ready to support the new center including the awareness initiatives in the country. The First Lady promised to build overnight stay places to ensure that patients and relatives who travel to our teaching hospitals for cancer treatment have a place to stay. She also promised to work with ACCI to ensure that grass root awareness continues and that the Hajiya Turai Cancer Center is built. The CEO of allied Energy made a $1 million donation towards the cancer center. ACCI is very grateful to him for his continued support. It is the hope of ACCI that other Well to do Nigerians will follow in his foot steps of providing help to Nigerians.
T-shirts and cancer awareness wrist bands were given out to everyone present before the walk. Stands with literature on various cancers were provided by ACCI along with other NGO’s present. You could see the eagerness to learn in the people as they picked up literature and asked lots of questions about various cancers. The walk ended with speeches on prevention of preventable cancers and early detection of treatable cancers.
Following the walk, ACCI team proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, Kaduna State. On route, courtesy call was paid to the Governor of Kaduna who promised to pay for the treatment of anyone found with abnormality while conducting cancer screening. The First two days at ABU, Zaria was spent on capacity building in the form of didactic lectures on various cancers to physicians, nurses, other allied Health professionals, residents and medical students. Train-of-trainer workshop was also provided to Community Health Workers which included doctors, nurses, and community health staff. The last 2 days was spent on public education and screening. The Emir of was very happy with the service we were providing for his people that he had extra announcement made on the radio calling for people to come out. He also had his entire family and cabinet screened.
The team was able to screen 211 people in 2-days and found 20 with abnormality in their cervix, 5 with advanced cervical disease, 40 with breast lump and 6 with advanced breast disease. The team also learnt from the teaching hospital that the 3 year old that ACCI had been trying to bring over here for treatment had died.
The last State of call was Cross River State. ACCI team arrived in Calabar on October 17, 2008. They spent 18 and 19th conducting lectures and train-of-trainer workshop. Both were well received. The General Hospital Calabar served as the base. The Kick off took place on Monday, October 21, 2008 after a TV life show during which Dr. Eucharia Iwuanyanwu and three other members of ACCI team educated the people of Calabar State about breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal cancer prevention and early detection. Monday was spent screening and educating people at the General hospital.
The next day, the team drove to Itigidi and spent the day conducting public education and screening. The last place of call in Cross River State was Ogoja General Hospital. Here the team also screened both men and women. Surprisingly, in Ogoja, more men turned out to be screened than as opposed to other places. This was very encouraging. A total of 324 people were screened in Cross River State. Many breast lumps were found all of whom were referred to the University of Nigeria (UNTH) Enugu for mammogram, Pap smears were sent to General Hospital Calabar for reading. People were given follow-up appoints. They are to return for their reports two weeks from the date they were seen by us. Advanced cases were sent to UNTH Enugu for management sponsored by the First Lady of Cross River State, Mrs. Obioma Lyel Imoke. We identified 10 advanced cervical lesions, 70 with breast lumps, and 11 with advanced prostate lesions.
Overall, ACCI was able to reach thousands of people through the October, 2008 program. A total of 535 were screened, and 70 were trained as cancer awareness educators. ACCI was able to identify many who otherwise would have presented at a later time as advanced cancer cases and potentially helped those with advanced disease.
