Wife of Ondo Governor Mrs Betty Akeredolu has urged government and stakeholders to support survivors and patients of breast cancer across the nation.
She lamented some of them are going through hard time due to lack of institutional support, adding that treatment of breast cancer is very expensive which makes live unbearable for some of the victims.
Speaking in Ibadan at a briefing to mark the 25th anniversary and 4th International Breast Cancer Symposium of the Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria, (BRECAN), Akeredolu maintained victims should have access to adequate an affordable treatment.
She said many women are dying needlessly as a result of breast cancer, adding that access to affordable treatment has become big problem for some of the victims.
She said: “Government should lessen access to treatment for breast cancer by provision of facilities and machines at treatment centers, the treatment is huge, when people don’t have money and can not afford it, they end up in dying untimely.”
The BRECAN President, while speaking on the theme of this year’s anniversary: “Closing the data gap for precision cancer control in Nigeria” said there is need to close gap in data collection of breast cancer victims and survivors across the nation.
She said it was high time for the nation to have its statistics to know if truly women are surviving breast cancer an to catered for the well being of the victims.
She maintained that BRECAN has become voice to the voiceless breast cancer patients and survivors, adding that its activities have motivated women to show up in hospital for screening and treatment.
“We have embarked on some interventions, we want to become one stop shop where women can get adequate information on cancer, the hallmark of this celebration is to showcase that women still survive cancer,” she said.
She called for support towards funding the association so that it can continue to grow and expand to the 36 States of the Federation.