The 9th edition of ‘BCI Walk for the Cure, 2019’ has been launched in Cape Coast, the Central regional capital, on Thursday, September 12, 2019, with the theme ‘Early detection is the best prevention.
The annual global event is organized by Breast Care International (BCI), non-governmental organization, is to create awareness about breast cancer and to demystify the misconceptions and myths surrounding the disease.
The Walk which started in Kumasi in 2011 as ‘Susan G. Komen Ghana Race for the Cure’, is scheduled to held on Saturday, October 12, 2019, in a 5 kilometer walk and it is considered as Ghana’s largest and successful awareness creation event for breast cancer.
The event coincided with the “Year of Return”, an historic event to reconnect descendants of the African Diaspora with the continent, currently underway in Cape Coast, where slave trade began.
The walk is expected to draw together people from all walks of lives, both local and international and an estimated 60,000 people are billed to participate.
The President of Breast Care International (BCI), Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, noted that the increasing rate of breast cancer in the country calls for a massive campaign to increase to reduce deaths among women.
“More efforts have to been injected in the sensitization in the fight against breast cancer. Women are dying from the disease, a situation one cannot blame them because of inaccessibility of getting information about the disease. It is therefore prudent that we all come together and act as ambassadors to propagate the message to women to be breast cancer conscious,” she appealed.
The Central Regional Minister, Hon. Kwamena Duncan, who chaired the programme, expressed his excitement for associating himself to serve humanity through event and promised his support for the success of the programme.
“Am proud to be associating myself with Dr. Wiafe Addai who has been selflessly serving humanity in Ghana, she is the kind of person this country needs. Central region is ready for the event, and as the Central Regional minister, I will do everything possible to make the event successful in the creation of awareness of the breast cancer disease,” he gladly said.
He therefore called on other people to emulate Dr. Wiafe Addai, the chairperson of Ghana Cancer Board, for her selfless dedication in improving the welfare of women in the country.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Francis Appiah
