The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared breast cancer as the number one cancer scourge afflicting human beings with cervical cancer coming closely behind it. The experts emphasise early detection through screening as a way to remedy the situation. ARONKE OLAYIWOLA, in this report, looks at the efforts of the LEAH Charity Foundation in Kwara State in bringing succour to women.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said one in every eight women is at risk of having breast cancer in her lifetime, which makes the diagnosis of breast cancer very compelling and with constant regularity.

Breast cancer is currently the most common cancer in Nigeria. It has been said that "one or two in every 25 Nigerian women are at risk of breast cancer, but higher risks exist for women who are older than 45, older than 30 at birth of their first child, and women with family history".

Here in Nigeria, most of the diagnoses are made when it is too late, thereby leading to several needless and painful deaths of our beloved women.

Cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among women in Nigeria following breast cancer, with about 9,659 women dying of cervical cancer annually. About 24.8 percent of women in the general population habour the HPV, the virus known to cause cervical cancer in women and genital warts in both men and women.

Perhaps alarmed by this fact, Leah Charity Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital has in the past couple of months, embarked on a number of programmes aimed at drawing the attention of women in the state to the ravaging effect of breast and cervical cancer.

The organization, last year, set up screening centres in the state where women could walk in, pay just N200 and get screened for cervical cancer. This is in addition to being taken through the process of self-breast check for lumps which may be indicative of breast cancer. At the time of the establishment of the centres, the NGO vigorously pursued enlightenment and sensitisation campaign in the media, especially the broadcast media and staged road shows to ensure as many women as possible were carried along. Nothing however compares to the massive efforts which the organisation has put up in this regard than its recent commemoration of the World Cancer Day.

In the last one week, the foundation, led by its founding trustee, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed has embarked on road show which at the moment has traversed the three senatorial districts of the state. It is all in its determination to reduce the incidence of breast and cervical cancers in women through a sensitisation of the women all over the state.

Ahmed, who is also the wife of the state governor, said the NGO had "unfolded a massive awareness campaign in every possible media outlets on cancer. There are jingles on radio and television. We have also secured the collaboration of musical artistes in the state, who have recorded songs which will gain regular air play as a way to alerting our people to the menace of cancer."

In line with this, the foundation's sensitisation tours had covered 10 out of the 16 local government areas in the state at the moment.

The founder led thousands of volunteers on each of the tours where they visited traditional, religious and market leaders,  explaining that the disease "should no longer be treated as a death sentence or some wickedness imposed by fate. We inspire the hope that everyone in our communities would be his or her sister's keeper in the renewed war against cancer. We distribute information and educational materials to sensitise Kwarans on the need to embrace voluntary screening and avoid predisposing factors to cancer some of which are habits like alcohol, smoking and lack of exercises."

To make access easier for women, the organisation has established three screening centres at the Adewole Cottage Hospital and Children Specialist Hospital, Centre- Igboro and the Sobi Specialist Hospital while efforts are on to provide more centres across the state.  The foundation has also gone further to establish the Leah Cancer Centre, an ultra-modern facility that provides full blown medical services from counselling to screening and treatment for women within and outside Kwara State.

According to the wife of the governor, "the organisation is working towards being able to provide every possible form of treatment at the cancer centre, and at the moment, the facility has the best equipment to nip cervical cancer in the bud". She appealed to women to take advantage of the ultra-modern equipment at the GRA, Ilorin based cancer centre for the screening of both breast and cervix cancer at a very highly subsidized rate of N200. The sum of N200, according to her, was fixed to take care of the disposables used for the screening. She added that efforts were on to improve the capacity of the centre to treat diagnosed cases

After screening, women who need further attention are referred to the Leah Cancer Centre which, according to the founding trustee, has the complement of ultra- modern and digital diagnostic equipment as well as skilled personnel. The facility is equipped with among others, a digital mammogram machine for breast screening and advanced microscope for pap smear examinations in respect of cervical cancer.

She added: "Once a woman does the VIA test and there are symptoms, we have a therapy we offer at this centre that is called the cryotherapy. Once they come for it, that nips it in the bud so that it doesn't go beyond that level and that vaccine is free. All they need to do is to make sure they come for regular check-up."

At the moment, 3, 500 women are said to have been screened at the centre. Out of this number, 240 were discovered to have grown lumps in their breasts while 30 have developed full blown breast cancer just as five of the women have cervical cancer that has developed beyond redemption. These women were referred to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) where the foundation has technical support.

Ahmed also spoke on the need to alert young girls on the benefit of delaying their first sexual experience, noting that girls who experience sex early and people with multiple sex partners are susceptible to cervical cancer. On how she plans to reach out to young girls, she said: "One of the programmes we do at present, which I am passionate about is the LEAH Reading Club. This is a programme that takes us around our post primary schools. We will use this platform to talk to our girls. It is an issue that we must use every opportunity to address so that we do not just jeopardise the future of our girls"

On the sustainability of the initiative, the governor's wife clarified that it was a ministry rather than a pet project. "It is not a pet project, it is a ministry. When you get to LEAH Foundation Centre, what you will see there will tell you that it is not about the duration of any office. It is a ministry that God has placed on me to touch the lives of our women. In the next eight, fifteen, twenty years, I think the foundation will continue to wax stronger. When God gave me the vision, one of the things I did was to work on the sustainability of the foundation. I am a business person, I am a trader, I have been in business for over 20 years. I took the portion of the business and I ploughed it into a business venture that is known as LEAH Height Venture. This was basically set up to clear the recurrent expenditure of the foundation," she added.