Zubair Qureshi
Spouse of the president Mrs Samina Alvi on Tuesday said every year, around 100,000 women in Pakistan were being diagnosed with breast cancer and stressed timely diagnosis as the major solution to the alarming situation.
Speaking at a breast cancer awareness event held at Islamabad Model College for Girls, Mrs Alvi said every 13 minutes, a woman in Pakistan was being diagnosed with breast cancer with an alarming 45 percent mortality rate.
She said that 90 percent of such women patients could recover from the disease with help of early screening and diagnosis.
Mrs Alvi said raising awareness among women about self-diagnosis could save thousands of precious lives. Not only the women patients, she said, the painful disease with expensive treatment also affected their close ones in form of psychological and financial trauma.
She expressed satisfaction that the awareness drive about breast cancer was going on successfully across the country and urged the women to spread the word to at least 10 women.
Samina Alvi said the awareness campaign would not only limit to the month of October but would continue throughout the year.
She also urged the male members of the family to realize the suffering attached with the disease and support women to get proper medical care.
Begum Alvi said women in the country were playing a vital role in all fields of life, adding that it was important to be concerned about their well-being.
She urged upon all cross-sections of society, particularly men to join hands in raising awareness about breast cancer. She lauded the role of media in spreading the word on breast cancer through special television programmes and newspaper articles.
