As part of an ongoing national campaign on breast cancer awareness, the Honourable First Lady of Pakistan Begum Samina Arif Alvi visited the University of Peshawar where a session on Breast Cancer Awareness was organised by Northwest General Hospital and Research Centre, and the University.
Vice Chancellor University of Peshawar, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Idrees bid welcome to the Honourable First Lady as the Chief Guest at the occasion, and appreciated the interest taken by the Honourable First Lady in increasing awareness of this disease amongst staff and students of the University.
CEO NWGH Dr. Zia ur Rehman spoke to the audience and highlighted the lack of awareness that prevails in our society regarding not only breast cancer but also mental health and child abuse. Furthermore, he also shed light on NWGH’s month-long campaign that included 12 sessions, two of which were specifically organised for men, at different universities in the region.
NWGH actively aims to continuously raise awareness for breast cancer and sessions like these have been held throughout the month of October. Furthermore, NWGH regularly holds seminars and awareness sessions to highlight and address different health and social issues affecting our population, that can be addressed by educating the society.
Dr. Shandana Khan, Head of Radiology at NWGH, and her team educated the audience on signs and symptoms of breast cancer, and the importance of its early detection in the fight against the deadly disease.
The session concluded with closing remarks of the First Lady who in addition to breast cancer, also emphasised supporting differently-abled persons and shed light on the importance of, and efforts towards women empowerment. Begum Samina Arif Alvi has been spearheading the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign in the country over the last few years and appreciated the University of Peshawar & NWGH for their role in spreading the message in KP. She also highlighted the steps being taken by the Government of Pakistan for establishing screening units and utilising basic health units and lady health workers in the fight against breast cancer.