Agencies launch Pinktober

THE PNG Cancer Foundation (PNGCF) and National Finance Ltd launched the 2016 Pink Ribbon Brunch yesterday in Port Moresby.
PNGCF chief executive officer Dadi Toka Jr said the event would be hosted on Oct 28 to raise funds to support the awareness programmes of the foundation.
He said statistics indicated that two women were dying every day from cervical cancer and nine per cent of hospital admissions in Port Moresby General Hospital were patients diagnosed with breast cancer.
“Those numbers are quite alarming and I guess this is why we are here to launch this event and try to create more emphasis and highlight women’s cancer and prevention in Papua New Guinea,” he said.
Toka said the foundation would host activities that addressed women’s cancers, free cancer screening and awareness programme in Papa and Lealea villages on Oct 12-13.
Last year, the foundation raised K71,000 at the Pink Ribbon Brunch and the money was used to assist this year’s provincial free cancer  screening and awareness programmes in Lae, Alotau, Kimbe and several villages in NCD.
National Finance Ltd national sales manager John Dickinson said: “We wanted to partner with the PNGCF considering it not so much as charity but a public service that needs to be encouraged and supported as much as possible.”
He said as a cancer survivor, he knew how fatal cancer was and the importance of the fight against it and their support for PNGCF was for a worthy cause.