Team Herald
PANJIM: International cricketing icon and humanitarian Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Foundation launched the ‘Swasth Mahila, Swasth Goa’ initiative in partnership with the SBI Foundation and the Government of Goa on Tuesday under which, free breast cancer screening will be done for 1 lakh women in Goa.
“Having fought through cancer myself, I firmly believe that this disease can be cured if it is detected early and given the correct treatment. And this is our mission with the Swasth Mahila, Swasth Goa initiative. Women are the backbone of our society and we are committed to making every effort for their health and wellbeing,” said Singh.
This will ensure that 50 per cent of the eligible female in the State is screened as the initiative was formally launched by Minister of Health Vishwajit Rane in the presence of others.
Addressing the audience at the launch ceremony, Rane said that this initiative is something he has been pushing for a very long time. “During one of my visits to New York, I met Mihir Shah, Founder of UE Life Sciences, and we had a very long chat on taking forward this initiative with this support. I thank the YouWeCan foundation and SBI Foundation for putting this initiative for us where we will be screening 1,00,000 women for breast cancer. Initially, we had aimed to screen 20,000 women, but it sounded unacceptable to me as it will hardly have any impact.”
Further adding to this address, he recalled his efforts during his earlier tenure as Health Minister where they launched Mini vans to screen women for breast cancer. “Our aim is to train all the ANMs & Anganwadi workers to reach out to all the villages and screen women for breast cancer so that we are able to save lives and they do not have to go through the trauma of surgery and other things,” said the minister said.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in India, with 1 in 8 women contracting the disease and 1, 62,000 new cases every year. Moreover, 70 percent patients get diagnosed in advanced stages due to lack of screening. Government of Goa will screen 1 lakh women for breast cancer in the State over a period of two years to ensure early detection and timely treatment of breast cancer.
