Urgent! Free breast cancer treatment needed Doris Yaa Dartey. The WatchWoman Column

Urgent! Free breast cancer treatment needed 

Doris Yaa Dartey.                      The WatchWoman Column

Every year, October is marked globally as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It started in the USA in 1985 – 34 years ago. It is a campaign that seeks to crank up public education about the importance of screening to ensure early detection. For breast cancer, and for other cancers generally, early detection is what increases a person’s chance of survival. It is only when the wicked cancer cells can be detected early that treatment can occur to uproot it. Without the knowledge that comes through early detection, the cancer monster gets the chance to quietly spread and to cause murderous havoc.

I do not know the year when Ghana began to throw the searchlight on breast cancer. But clearly, October as a Breast Cancer Awareness Month has come to stay. Beginning in September, posters, flyers, billboards and mass media announcements go up to announce the upcoming breast cancer month. Throughout the month of October, the reminders are very visible and loud – at least in cities and large towns. In health care delivery centres, women are encouraged to do self-breast examinations and undergo scans like mammograms. 

So breast cancer has become a health condition that enjoys the unique status of a campaign. A campaign is a coordinated effort that uses a mix of multiple channels of information to disseminate specific messages to reach targeted stakeholders in ways that can change their attitudes, behaviours and perceptions. A campaign should be sustained. There should be no stopping! A campaign requires that no stones are left unturned, resources are made available, and everything that can bring about the desired results should be accessible.

Undoubtedly, the breast cancer awareness campaign has contributed in saving numerous lives worldwide. Yet, there are many people in Ghana who dread the very thought of early detection. Knowledge is power. But breast cancer knowledge is tantamount to a death sentence. It is tough to gain the knowledge that something strange is lurking inside your body, and vigorously warming up to attack you as you walk about and living your life. You do not see it, and you may not feel it but like an enemy, it hides in your body to get you, and ultimately, kill you. At times, your body may whisper to you that all is not well within.  

COST OF BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSES AND TREATMENT

As matters currently stand in Ghana, breast cancer campaign remains a mere journey into awareness raising. But, woe betides you after undergoing further investigation, you discover that you have breast cancer. It will mark the beginning of your long journey into frustrations. You will then realize that Ghana is not ready for you. You will learn the very hard way that Ghana does not work. 

Last month, I paid GHc200 to do a mammogram. For this month of October, the cost is discounted to GHc160. After diagnoses, the drama and cost of treatment is another can of worms. To figure out what is happening inside my chest region, this week, I did a CT scan. I paid a whopping GHc620 for it!

Trying to negotiate your way through the maze of Ghana’s medical establishment is overwhelming. A person could potentially experience panic attacks at every stage of the journey to find treatment. There is no wonder that prayer camps and other so-called religious healers succeed in preying on people who are diagnosed with cancers.

It is about time for the state of Ghana to commit to the treatment of breast cancer. All the public awareness generated by the breast cancer month campaign every October should consolidate into good treatment and care. What is the point of awareness creation if a person cannot afford the very high cost of treatment? Not surprisingly, some people do not bother to find out their breast cancer status. Apart from the fear of knowing, the overwhelming financial burden to treat this disease demotivates people to take advantage of the awareness created. 

WHAT SENEGAL IS DOING

Three weeks ago, our West African neighbour, Senegal, made a very bold and admirable move. The BBC news headline screamed: “Senegal to offer free breast and cervical cancer treatment!” To fund this noble initiative, the Senegalese government had allocated $1.6 billion. Beginning this month of October, women will be offered free chemotherapy in public hospitals. Earlier on in 2015, the government had committed to covering 60% of the treatment cost of all cancers.

Other countries on the continent (namely Rwanda, Namibia and Seychelles) offer free chemotherapy to women. These are initiatives that can help alleviate poverty, reduce mortality, and lessen the immense pressure cancer unleashes on people. What would be the motivation of my neighbourhood roasted plantain seller with five kids to respond to a well-packaged awareness raising message to enter a hospital to be checked for breast cancer? That kind of knowledge will only unleash heightened grief, to compound a life that is already characterized by deprivation and misery.

It is about time that well-endowed Ghana – the land of gold, diamond, crude oil, bauxite, arable lands, Volta River, and numerous other God-given gifts – for a minimum, copy the superb examples of Senegal, Rwanda, Namibia and Seychelles. The lives of Ghanaian women is worth saving from breast cancer!

“WHEN BREAST STRIKES: THE REFLECTIONS OF A SURVIVOR”

This book, “When breast cancer strikes”, will be published early next year. Here is a teaser of my reflections of what I have gone through for the past five years after being diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2014. Over the past 13 years of writing this column, I have accepted the reality that a columnist must periodically open up about self. Although I typically comment on national issues like sanitation, environment and children, the subject matter I know better than any other is myself. Going through breast cancer taught me a lot about myself and about Ghana. Chapter two of my book is entitled, “There is something about the word cancer!” The chapter begins with this passage:

“There is something about the word cancer that wounds the soul. There is just something! I cannot quite put a finger on that particular something. But there is something about the name cancer that makes the heart beat faster, the knees go limp, the face drops, and the smiles varnish. The C-word Cancer is packaged with full terror! The word cancer seems to be fully wrapped in fear—fear that passeth all understanding. 

“The diagnoses of cancer laid on you can quickly jolt you away from your ever-evolving exciting life plans to the gloomy fear of dying—of the end. It brings the concept of ‘life is fleeting’ very much alive and to an urgent reality. Fact: You never know how you will react to something like cancer until it strikes you. Being diagnosed with breast cancer revealed me to myself, and lay bare all the fault-lines in my personhood.”

dorisdartey@gmail.com