Official urges Lae women to do monthly checks

By LARRY ANDREW
MORE than 300 women in Lae have been encouraged to check their breasts every month.
The advice came during the annual Pink Ribbon Day yesterday at Lae Yacht Club.
Women from about 30 companies attended the event hosted by the Lae Lioness Club.
Cancer awareness coordinator at the Angau General Memorial Hospital Grace Ruddaka said monthly checks would help prevent breast cancer from developing to stages which was hard to cure.
Ruddaka said women should learn from clinics and nurses to check their own breasts.
She said being overweight and taking excessive alcohol and smoking did not help prevent cancer.
“Through monthly checks if you see or feel unusual lumps, do not wait for it grow bigger. It has become a norm to us Papua New Guineans to wait and see before getting to the hospital but with breast cancer, it is different. When you do not get help it will go past stage one,” she said.
Ruddaka said the cancer centre at Angau was capable of treating stage one and a little further but beyond that there was a slim chance of any successful treatment.
“With no oncologist in place we want to advice you to check your breast which is not a hard thing for you to do,” she said.
“It will not take long, less than two minutes before your shower or after.”