The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Children take to the streets with cancer awareness message

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 06, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Children take to the streets with cancer awareness message

Special Correspondent

800 children and volunteers take out rally to highlight importance of early detection

WALK FOR A CAUSE: Schoolchildren participate in a cancer awareness rally organised by the Adyar Cancer Institute on Sunday. — PHOTO: N. SRIDHARAN

CHENNAI: On a rainy Sunday morning, Chennai woke up to the sounds of nearly 800 children taking to the streets with a message that could have changed the lives of millions of those struggling with the dreaded disease.

In the run-up to the National Cancer Awareness Day on November 7, the children, sporting bright red caps, joined hands with volunteers to take out a rally from the Adyar Cancer Institute to highlight the importance of early detection.

V. Shanta, chairman of the institute, flagged off the rally. Placards that read, `choose life, not death', `choose life, not tobacco', `tobacco is our enemy', `natural foods keep cancer away', spread the message loud and clear. The children had come from the N.C.C and N.S.S wings of schools at and around Adyar.

The rally is part of a series of initiatives the institute has lined up for spreading cancer awareness.

"The annual burden of cancer in India has increased manifold in the last two decades. Changes in lifestyle, life expectancy and urbanisation are also affecting the pattern of occurrence of the disease. Despite these alarming indicators, cancer awareness is not receiving adequate support from the government," Dr. Shanta said. The response from schools to the rally was overwhelming and served as an inspiration to conduct more such campaigns, she said.

For the children themselves, it was a cause they would not have missed. "Despite several messages [from the government and other agencies], even the educated lack awareness of cancer. Unless we make our voices heard, many more cancer deaths will occur every year," said N. Malarvizhi, a 10-year-old resident of Avvai Home School.

The cancer institute will also organise an essay competition for school students in Tamil and English on November 7. Besides in Chennai, cancer awareness programmes will also be held at Gandhigram in Dindigul, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tiruchi.

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