More than 500 female students from various Senior High Schools and tertiary institutions in the Yendi Municipality of the Northern Region on Saturday underwent cancer screening and sensitisation.
The students were drawn from the Yendi Senior High School, Dagbon State Senior High School, Almaktum Senior High School, Yendi College of Health Science and St Vincent College of Education.
The event was organised by the leadership of National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) with support from the office of the Member of Parliament for Yendi Constituency.
The exercise also formed part of the activities to mark this year’s breast cancer awareness month.
The Secretary for Women Development of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Ms Suraiya Baatima, advised the students to have their breast checked regularly to prevent them from getting the breast cancer.
She said the campaign was a nationwide programme meant to educate them and create their awareness on the dangers of breast cancer, advising them always to go to hospitals to see health professionals in order to have their breast checked every month.
Ms Suraiya added that statistics available to them indicated that breast cancer was more prevalent in the rural communities hence making the rural women more vulnerable to cancer mortality.
Noting that breast cancer killed millions of women worldwide, Ms Suraiya told them to take screening of their breast seriously, since it was the only way to detect any form of abnormalities in the breast to seek immediate medical care.
The Secretary said early detection would help them deal with breast cancer effectively, advising further that the disease was deadly, and they should not feel shy to go to the health facilities to have their breast checked.
She also appealed to the entire students in the eastern corridor enclave and students across the country to come together to create more awareness, promote education to support the patients and survivors of breast cancer in the country.
Ms Asana Wuniziya Abubakari, a student of Dagbon State SHS, on behalf of the students expressed appreciation to the NUGS leadership for the kind gesture, saying that the screening had been helpful to them.
She also called on them to make it a monthly habit as many students were not aware of how dangerous breast cancer could be and called for more of such awareness raising and sensitisation.
FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, YENDI
