A severe lack of awareness and access to screening for breast cancer combined with a high prevalence of the disease, means that thousands of Indian women are dying unnecessarily. With 2000 new cases diagnosed every day and a 71% cancer mortality rate, the need for cancer awareness and screening couldn’t be more pressing.
Women living in deprived communities on the outskirts of Nagpur and Wardha usually go undetected until the disease progresses to an incurable stage. There is also an increase in the prevalence of breast cancer amongst younger Indian women; where the disease is usually more aggressive.
WIN in collaboration with local medical specialists is taking breast screening and health awareness to women living on the peripheries of Nagpur and Wardha. Sometimes we have to improvise, using community temples and even some of the women’s homes to conduct the programs in. What is important is reaching women who would normally remain unaware of the implications of a breast abnormality and helping those that do have abnormalities to get timely medical attention.
We would like to thank the iBreastExam team form IGMC Nagpur and the mammogram unit from Sawangi Meghe Hospital in Wardha.
