From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014
Remember Jane Frances in your prayers as she is battling with breast cancer. She welcomes you to a fundraising at Consolata Shrine in Nairobi, Westlands on August 3, 2014 so she can proceed to India for urgent mastectomy surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Those who can donate through M-Pesa can do so through her mobile phone +254 722369389. Jane Frances is currently pursuing her Doctorate studies at Kenyatta University. See her Preview attachment B Cancer Appeal Card JF A5 (1).pdf.
Jane Frances is diagnosed with breast cancer at the time the disease is emerging as the fastest growing diagnosed type of cancer among women countrywide. More women are dying from breast because the disease does not receive the attention it deserves.
Yet still, an alarming number of women do not bother to check their breasts, citing a general lack of awareness to perform self-breast examinations. It affects mostly women aged between 30 and 45.
Unfortunately, African women are more likely to die from breast cancer compared to white women partly because their tumours grow faster. Latest research also shows that women who have had no pregnancies or had their first child after the age of 30 are more at risk of breast cancer.
According to figures at the cancer association registry in Nairobi, 23 per cent of women suffer from breast cancer and 20 per cent from cervical cancer. The World Health Organization indicates that breast cancer is the top cancer in women both in the developed and the developing world.
Some experts argue that the incidence of breast cancer is increasing in the developing world due to increase life expectancy, increase urbanization and adoption of western lifestyles.
Generally, cancer is the 3rd highest cause of morbidity in Kenya at 7 percent of deaths per year, after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases. It is estimated that there are 39,000 new cases of cancer each year in Kenya with more than 27,000 deaths per year.
There are only few numbers of radiation centers in Kenya and all of them in Nairobi. They are Kenyatta National Hospital, MP Shah, Nairobi Hospital, and Aga Khan. Apart from Kenyatta Hospital, the rest are too expensive.
While cervical cancer is more common in the rural areas, breast cancer is common in urban areas, according to the Kenya Cancer Society.
Our First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, who was made the incoming chairman of the SCCA in Namibia recently
Concern over cervical cancer, experts say it has risen because 70 per cent of all cases can be prevented by giving girls aged nine to 13 years an HPV vaccine, which is not a case in Kenya currently.
With the First Lady initiatives, we hope that the government will roll out the vaccines countrywide. Kenya is among the countries picked by GAVI Alliance to receive heavily subsidised vaccines.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) boss Dr Margaret Chan, cervical cancer is easily prevented and curable if detected early. She says that its early detection and treatment do not require sophisticated facilities and equipment or highly specialised staff.
WHO recommends the use of the commonly available vinegar to detect precancerous lesions that cause cervical cancer-The lesions are then frozen, and stopped completely, using liquid nitrogen. This procedure is widely available in Kenya for free or about Sh200 in some public facilities. The treatment takes about five minutes only.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com
Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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