Orange Foundation Commemorates Brest Cancer Week

By Feima Sesay

Orange Sierra Leone Foundation has in collaboration with Sierra Leone Breast Cancer Society, launched a breast cancer screening campaign aimed at raising awareness and providing early detection services.

The event was held on Friday 11th October 2024 at the Connaught Hospital.

The initiative is part of the foundation health pillar, seeks to combat the rising cases of breast cancer in the country.

The campaign, which would run for a month, intended to screen 1,500 people, marking the first stage of a triage process that includes sensitization, screening, diagnosis, and referral for further treatment if needed.

This initiative aimed to provide free access to healthcare services for individuals who may not otherwise seek medical attention due to fear or misinformation.

The Admin Executive of Orange Foundation Cordelia Sogie-Thomas, in her statement during the launch emphasized the importance of the campaign, saying, “We are breaking the myths around breast cancer and providing a pathway for early detection, which could be life-saving.

By offering free screenings and working closely with local health organizations, we’re giving people the chance to take control of their health.”

The campaign would also include follow-up care, surgeries, counseling, and post-treatment support for patients diagnosed with breast cancer. In Sierra Leone she said, Cancer incidence has been steadily increasing since the opening of Sierra cancer registry, adding that recent data published by IARC showed approximately 2,000 cases of cancers diagnosed in 2022 and culmilative 8,880 cases were diagnosed over five year period.

Madam Sogie-Thomas added that although Sierra Leone has established program for cancer of the cervix, no other cancer has established programs for screening early diagnosis and treatment as the country has it fair share of challenges in cancer treatment.

Dr. Sama Banya, a Surgical Ancologist from Connaught Hospital in his statement also stressed the importance of early diagnosis, noting that many patients arrive at the hospital in the late stages of the disease.

“This screening effort is vital to catching breast cancer early when treatment is more effective,” he said.

The screening process, he said, is the act of finding out what is not obvious, stating further that because the month of October is a brest Cancer month and therefore patients are coming so that they could examine and find out about their status as to what is in their brest and give advice.

Normally, he said, they see patients with breast issues on Fridays, adding that the commemoration of breast cancer week is just a continuation of their job.

“This day is specifically being honoured by Orange Foundation and further confirmed an increase in the cases of cancer,” he noted.

Dr Sama Banya added that though there was an increase but they had specialist now that can do the surgery. Dr. Keifala Marrah, a clinical Onocologist whiles explaining the causes of brest Cancer, said the causes of breast cancers cannot be pinpoint to a certain cause, but said there are things that can expose someone and put them at risk to have breast cancer.

Most of the breast cancer cases, he said, occured spontaneously and do not know the cause, but however said there are certain factors you do that can put one at risk to have a breast cancer.

Some of the examples, he said, are due to the intake of alcohol, smoking, family history of cancer such as prostrate, overall and brest cancer, overweight, noting that people who are not doing exercise their chances to develop brest cancer is high.

He emphasized that if people are not educated about breast cancer, it would cause a lot of damage and that is why he said the screening at early stage is very important.