Students warned to make right choices to avoid getting cancer

THE PNG Cancer Foundation conducted its first Healthy Teens school programme at the Hagara Primary School in Hanuabada yesterday.
More than 200 grade 8 students attended the sessions where foundation health educator Jacob Oburi talked about what cancer was and ways to reduce the risks of getting it.
“Many cancers are caused as a result of unhealthy lifestyle choices,” Oburi said.
“Chewing betel nuts, smoking and drinking alcohol can lead to certain types of cancer.”
According to health educators Loylla Mathew and Naomi Gima, breast cancer, mouth cancer and cervical cancer were the three types of common cancers in PNG.
Of the three, cervical and mouth cancer spreads through unsafe practices in which betel nut is one of the main causes – of mouth cancer.
World Health Organisation states that 30 per cent of cancer cases are preventable.
Oburi has been conducting Healthy Teens school programmes since the foundation started in 2016 and has always stressed the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.