Disturbed by the danger that cervical and breast cancers pose to the health of the womenfolk, the LEAH Charity Foundation in collaboration with the office of the wife of Kwara State governor, Mrs Omolewa Ahmed, and the Women Medical Doctors Association, has set up three cancer screening centres in the state.

The programme, which commenced with a three-day sensitisation and awareness campaign involving different women groups in the state, is geared towards improving the health of women in the state.

The cancer screening is open to all women in the state for a fee of N200 in any of the designated centres.

The Special Assistant to the governor's wife, Mr Lanre Bello, at a parley with newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital, said that "one very important project on our mind currently is the provision of health education and affordable cancer screening facilities for the good people of Kwara state."

He lamented that, "it has become obvious to us that we lose a lot of our women to the lack of appropriate education on the ways to avoid the deadly ailment and that the lack of access to screening facilities denies them the opportunity for life-saving interventions which science provides.

"This is a tide that we are determined to stop. We agree that death is an inevitable end for every mortal but, we are determined to stop every avoidable death and improve life expectancy in our state."

To achieve its aim, the LEAH Foundation solicited for the assistance of the wealthy individuals to "kindly join us in the effort to provide cancer screening facilities, especially mammogram machines."

At one of the sensitisation programmes, at Oja-Oba, Ilorin, the representative of the governor's wife and Head of health department, Mrs Toyin Opawoye, said that having regular checkups, particularly for women who are 30 years and above, not only help to detect the presence of the killer disease but also lead to prevention of ailments which if left unchecked can lead to death.

She advised women in the state to take advantage of the LEAH Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Programme to safeguard their health and the lives of their loved ones.

In her remarks, the administrator of LEAH Charity Foundation, Mrs Bukola Akinleye, reiterated the governor's wife's resolve to making positive impact on the lives of Kwarans, adding that the foundation has subsidised the screening fees to enable every woman in the state access the facilities at the centres.

According to her, with a token fee of N200, every woman in Kwara State can easily benefit from the screening programme available at three centres, including Adewole Cottage Hospital, Children Specialist Hospital, Igboro and Sobi Specialist Hospital, every weekday.