Mission possible!

Bhanu P Lohumi

Creating awareness about breast cancer among young females has become a passion for Kalpna Sanghaik, an active social worker pursuing her cause vigorously for almost a decade now.

The idea to launch a massive awareness campaign and reach out to maximum number of women in the age group of 25 and 45 years struck her nine years ago, after her friend was diagnosed with cancer and was fully cured, as the disease was detected at an early stage.

“It was a signal that cancer can be cured if detected at an early stage and I decided to create awareness among females to go for regular check-ups and treatment if symptoms of cancer are detected,” said Kalpana, who was upset over the fact that lakhs of females die due to the disease because of lack of awareness and hesitation to talk about it.

Focus is on educating females that early detection can save lives and stage I and II cancer are curable, if a three-pronged strategy – awareness, clinical check-up and self-examination methods – was adopted, she said. “My dream is to get in touch with every woman of the state at least for this very purpose,” she said.

Kalpna with the help of NGOs has reached out to more than 40,000 women so far through “awareness generation-cum-clinical check-up camps” in different parts of the state and has become instrumental in providing financial help to over 20 poor women for their surgeries.

In each camp, the number of females who were clinically checked about the symptoms of breast cancer by specialists was between 200 and 600. A 15-minute video regarding symptoms and self-examination method is screened in all camps and free mammography tests are conducted for those who are poor.

“Awareness level was low in rural areas. We hold awareness-cum-clinical check-up camps in rural areas, colleges and schools for females, besides counselling for cancer patients in hospitals and helping patients in early and effective treatment,” said Kalpna, adding that females are also trained in yoga and pranayama as preventive and curative methods.

For the last eight years, Kalpna is engaged in regular free counselling of cancer patients at the IGMC’s Cancer Hospital twice a week and guides patients and their attendants about the diet and other precautions during treatment. She is also counselling womenfolk at Kamla Nehru Hospital.

Speaking about her commitment to the cause, Kalpna said: “Our objective is to motivate patients to fight cancer, address their doubts and take care of them. Awareness camps have saved hundreds of lives (Stage-I patients were operated and cured). Thousands of females have attended camps and benefitted. Self-examination has helped females to check symptoms, thousands of school and college girls have joined awareness camps, hundreds and thousands of cancer patients have been benefited through counselling and yoga camps.”