Advocate calls for inclusion of men in breast cancer education

Journalist and breast cancer advocate Ms Raissa Sambou has indicated that men should not be excluded from breast cancer conversations, as they too can be affected by the disease. 

As part of her ongoing door-to-door campaign, she is raising awareness of breast cancer in rural communities, focusing on both men and women who often lack access to healthcare information and treatment.

Ms Sambou, a breast cancer survivor, stressed that her campaign aimed to educate people in underserved areas on early detection and prevention.

“Prevention is always better than cure, especially when it comes to breast cancer,” she said, adding that early diagnosis significantly improves survival chances and reduces the need for aggressive treatments such as chemotherapy and surgery.

She is also concerned about the impact of breast cancer on families, especially children.

Through her initiative, dubbed: “The Raissa Child Protection Initiative,” the multiple award-winning journalist advocates the well-being of children by empowering their parents to take better care of them.

"If parents are not healthy, they cannot care for their children," she noted, stressing the importance of health in child protection efforts.

She revealed that the campaign, which began in Tomefa, a fishing community in the Ga South Municipality, also seeks to dispel the misconceptions surrounding breast cancer in rural areas, where fear and stigma often prevent early treatment.

Ms Sambou stated that the initiative was set to expand to parts of the Eastern and Central regions, with the goal of improving awareness and saving lives in areas where access to health care remains a problem.

She also underscored the importance of adopting a preventive approach to managing chronic health issues, especially given the limited resources at many healthcare facilities in the country. 

Medical services

She expressed concern that rural residents often have to travel long distances across regions to access basic medical services such as mammograms and CT scans.

This, Ms Sambou noted, contributed to the high number of undiagnosed cancers and late-stage diagnoses, which severely impacted treatment outcomes.

She lamented that even in cases of early detection, the lack of adequate cancer treatment equipment in the country often hampered patient survival.

At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), the nation's largest referral centre, she explained, only two radiotherapy machines serve hundreds of patients, forcing many to wait for months before receiving treatment.

"My campaign is not only focused on awareness but also on advocating improved healthcare infrastructure, especially in rural communities, to ensure that early detection leads to timely and effective treatment," she added.