The Sai Prema Foundation Fiji in conjunction with Fiji Cancer Society is providing free breast cancer examinations, medical consultations and awareness workshop to underprivileged women throughout this week.
During the awareness initiative event, the Director of the Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital, Dr Krupali Tappoo says many women suffering from cancer are afraid of invasive treatment and even resort to herbal and alternative medication.
She says every year 250 to 300 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Fiji and often the diagnosis is late and on many occasions, the cancer will be stage four which is the final stage with spread to the liver, lungs and bone, with poor prognosis.
Tappoo says most women are constantly busy, multitasking and quite often give so much to others that they often forget to take care of themselves.
She says in Fiji, at the moment we have access to surgery in the form of mastectomy and some chemotherapy with drugs.
Tappoo says with our current infrastructure, it is necessary to detect cancer early.
