Zubair Qureshl
Spouse of President Arif Alvi, Mrs Samina Alvi has urged the country’s women to spare five minutes to get to know the symptoms of breast cancer and practise every month the 5-minute routine of self-examination.
Speaking at a breast cancer awareness event organ-ized at Tarlai Rural Health Centre (TRHC), Mrs Alvi said diagnosis of the disease at the first stage could enhance 98 per cent chances of saving a pa-tient’s life.
Mrs Alvi said taking out five minutes every month was extremely important for a woman to detect any abnormality in the body followed by immediate medical assistance.
Expressing concerns over 40,000 deaths due to breast cancer every year, she said it was the time for the women to realize the gravity of the situation and be concerned about their health.
Mrs Alvi emphasized adopting a healthy lifestyle including a balanced diet and physical exercise to prevent breast cancer.
She called upon the women to spread the awareness message to at least 10 other women around them.
She lauded the government’s step to engage nurses and lady health workers (LHWs) in raising aware-ness on the issue and mentioned the immense sup-port rendered by civil and military departments, welfare organizations, media, and educational insti-tutions in this regard.
Bakhtiyar Kadrov, Representative of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for Pakistan said Paki-stan had the highest rate of breast cancer cases in Asia, which needed urgent measures.
He commended the efforts of Samina Alvi in edu-cating the womenfolk on breast cancer and the gov-ernment’s initiative of universal health coverage for the people across the country.
