Foundation partners Access women to screen 500 women in Nigeria for cervical cancer

Exquisite Magazine Cancer Care Foundation has partnered Access women network to screen 500 women in Nigeria for cervical cancer.

This partnership is coming at a time when 100,000 new cancer cases are discovered every year in Nigeria with lack of adequate cancer screening and cancer treatment centres.

Speaking during the screening in Lagos, Tewa Onasanya founder of Exquisite Magazine said the reason why the foundation conducts screening for cervical cancer is because the cancer is killing women at an alarming rate in Nigeria.

“Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that have the pre-cancer stage and it is 100percent preventable. So, why should we be losing women to a cancer that is preventable? This can be prevented through regular screening. That is why, every year, we use the magazine and the awards that we do to continue to raise awareness that people need to get screened. If you dictate the growing cells early, it can be treated.

“We have had so many successes. When people come to programmes like this, they do a test and if they find out that they are positive and they begin to treat it. We have saved a lot of lives. Today we are screening 500 women.

“The aim is for them to get screened and know if they have any issue or not. The virus that causes the cervical cancer has an incubation period of between five to 10 years. So, if you are not screening regularly, it might have grown. So women need to be checking every year as long as they are sexually active, to make sure there are no abnormal cells growing,” Onasanya said.

She disclosed that the foundation also visits the rural areas and plans visiting more places to create awareness on cervical cancer as well as give women free screening.

Chidi Chukwudi-Madu, financial analyst, Access bank said that Access woman network decided to partner with the foundations because the bank is passionate about women, adding that if a woman is healthy, the economy will be healthy.

Chukwudi-Madu assured that access bank will always be on ground to lead women through the process of awareness, getting screened and treated.

Ifeoma Okeke