The Malabar Cancer Care Society (MCCS), a Kannur-based voluntary organisation for cancer awareness and nodal agency of the State government for cancer control, will organise elaborate breast cancer control programmes in Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts in October.
Informing this in a press release here on Monday, MCCS president D. Krishnanadha Pai said the programmes being held in these districts as part of its ‘Breast Cancer Brigade’ campaign are planned to cover 2.5 lakh women.
The programmes are being held in seven panchayats under the leadership of Vengara block panchayat, Mukkam municipality, Kunnummal and Kodiyathur panchayats in Kozhikode under the aegis of the respective local bodies, Ramanthali panchayat and Payyannur municipality in collaboration with the Payyannur Mid-town Rotary Club and Payyannur Rotary Club respectively.
Household visits
The month-long programmes include household visits by trained local Kudumbasree workers, Accredited Social Health Activists and National Service Scheme volunteers for offering breast cancer awareness and training for breast self-examination.
The programme is also planned to identify women having symptoms of possible breast cancer, Mr. Pai informed.
The household visits would be followed by village-level medical examination camp by expert doctors from Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, for suspected cases. Facilities in the MCCS mobile tele oncology unit ‘Sanjeevani’ including mammogram, ultrasound scan and other test facilities would be available for free at the camps, he added.
The release said that during the first phase of the Breast Cancer Brigade programme that covered 88,000 women in the Mattannur and Kuthuparamba municipalities and the Kozhikode Corporation, 44 women were diagnosed with the early stage of breast cancer.
WHO support
The programme is being conducted with the support of the World Health Organisation and the Larsen and Toubro Ltd., he informed.
