Kwara Governor’s Wife intensifies Fight Against Cancer

Wife of the Governor of Kwara State, Mrs. Omolewa  Ahmed has embarked on a massive and ceaseless campaign against the harm which cancer is causing to women and families in the North Central State calling on all Nigerians including  corporate bodies to come together to arrest the devastating effect of the disease. 

Speaking with reporters in Ilorin on commemoration of this year “World Cancer Day”   the wife of the Governor, who is also the Founding Trustee of LEAH foundation, said  the determination to fight the cancer scourge with every resource available to her is the reason why the Board of the Leah Charity Foundation has established the Leah Cancer Centre. Before addressing the press, Mrs Ahmed had led a sensitization walk around the Ilorin metropolis.

Noting that the Leah Foundation  has made very alarming discoveries in the past couple of months, she clarified that the situation is not peculiar to Kwara State as cancer is a major killer the world over and that every had must be on deck to save the lives of our people.

She expressed particular worry over the recent stunning statistics of women suffering breast and cervical cancers in Kwara State and threw a challenge at every member of the society to contribute to the reduction of the burden of the breast and cervical cancer from which one woman die every minute in and every hour respectively in Nigeria.

Stating that early detection is a sure panacea to saving the of people who may have encountered the disease, Mrs Ahmed said that her Foundation will from “today unfold a massive awareness campaign in every possible media outlets on cancer. There will be jingles on radio and television. We have also secured the collaboration of musical artistes in the state, who have recorded songs which will gain regular air play as a way to alerting our people to the menace of cancer. 

The Foundation will also stage road shows in the three senatorial districts of the state with the aim of enlightening our people on the condition, preventive measures and available treatment options.  We will make them know that the disease should no longer be treated as a death sentence or some wickedness imposed by fate. We will inspire the hope that everyone in our communities would be his or her sister’s keeper in the renewed war against cancer. We will distribute information and educational materials to sensitise Kwarans on the need to embrace voluntary screening and avoid predisposing factors to cancer some of which are habits like alcohol, smoking and lack of exercises.”

On the successes that have been recorded by the Leah Cancer Centre across the state,  she said that  3,500 women have been screened, with 240 of them having breast lumps,  30 had cases of "full blown cancer" while five of the screened women, had cases of Cervical Cancer, "that had gone beyond redemption."

She said further that  ten women are  currently under going Cryotherapy, just as 50 women have been referred to University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin for the removal of lumps in their breasts. Other referral centres bankrolled by the foundation for cancer related cases are; Adewole Cottage Hospital and Children Specialist Hospital, Centre- Igboro, both in Ilorin.

Appealing to women to take advantage of the ultra modern equipment at the GRA, Ilorin based cancer centre for screening of both breast and cervix  at a very highly subsidized rate of  200 naira which  was fixed to take care of the disposables used for the screening said efforts are on to improve the capacity of the centre to treat diagnosed cases.