Breast screening for women in Parliament

Page 14 (pol), Nov 12, 2007

Story: Kweku Tsen & Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
SCORES of women on Thursday thronged the Parliament House to have their breasts screened as part of measures put in place by the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus to minimise the spread of breast cancer.
The beneficiaries included female MPs and spouses of staff of the Parliamentary Service, among others.
The disease has become one of the major causes of death among women and efforts are being made by the various organisations to curb it.
According to experts, over 400 new cases of the disease are diagnosed at the Breast Cancer Clinic of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital every year.
The Oncology Department of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital also recorded a total of 462 cases of different types of cancer last year.
The caucus, therefore, held a workshop on the theme: “Be breast cancer aware and not breast cancer scared” after the screening exercise to educate the women about the disease.
In his address, the wife of the Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Betty Sekyi Hughes, called on women to change their perception about breast cancer because the disease was curable.
“What we need to do is to regularly have our breasts examined so that if even we have the disease it would be detected early for treatment”, she advised.
For his part, the Second Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan, commended the Women Caucus for their foresight and acknowledged that with such unity of purpose, the spread of the disease would be minimised.
“The Women Caucus has shown that politics is not only about votes. It is meant for development”, he said in appreciation of the unity between the Majority and Minority women Members of Parliament (MPs) towards fighting the disease.
The acting chairperson of the caucus, Mrs Gifty Kusi, said the caucus had been on the forefront of issues that would enhance the development of women over the years.
“Our action is part of our general commitment towards the welfare of women in the country”, she stated.