The observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Day on Friday, October 25, part of a month of activities, attracted wide support throughout the island and provided much satisfaction to the Anguilla Cancer Society for its hard work in promoting the event.
President of the Cancer Society, Mrs Jennifer Gumbs, speaking on behalf of the entire membership, said the group was pleased with the tremendous support from members of the public. She spoke particularly about two main matters.
The first was Breast Cancer Awareness Day when various places of work in the public and private sectors allowed both female and male employees to turn up at their jobs in pink blouses and shirts – the colour of the awareness campaign. The second was the Walk of Hope in the afternoon from the Gazebo on the grounds of the Scouts and Guides Ruthwill Auditorium down to the Water Swamp, across to the North Hill Road, up the Reverend Carty Road to The Valley and back to the grounds of the Ruthwill Auditorium.
It was a very busy day, but representative groups of employees from some of the workplaces were able to respond to an invitation from the Cancer Society to participate in a media photo shoot.
One group represented NAGICO Insurance, just across from the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. The spokesperson was Dalanique Horne: “NAGICO is anInsurance Company and we have joined with the world in supporting the breast cancer awareness campaign. Breast cancer accounts for 22.9 percent of all cancers in women and we, as an insurance company, see the need for awareness – and we encourage both men and women to take preventative measures.”
The representative staff group at Scotiabank was led by the General Manager, Mrs Pamela Herbert Daniel. “We believe that this is a cause that we definitely want to support as breast cancer can happen to anyone of us here at the Branch,” she commented. “We can have relatives who may have had breast cancer and are survivors; and we think it is a worthy cause to support Breast Cancer Awareness Day.”
At Social Security, Arnie S Hodge, Public Relations/Human Resources Officer said: “We are involved in health awareness in general and this is just part of it. The thrust for Social Security started with our staff in making sure we have healthy employees. This continues throughout the community for us because, if you have a healthy society, you have a healthy workforce; and a healthy workforce is better for everybody – may be especially Social Security. So we are encouraging people to take part in all health activities, and all health observations throughout the year, like this current one for breast cancer awareness.”
At Radio Anguilla, the Director, Ms Farah Banks, had this to say: “As a staff we decided to get involved because the breast cancer issue is near and dear to our hearts – because we have had family members affected by cancer and breast cancer. We see how this affects the lives of not only the affected person, but the entire family. We just wanted to stand in solidarity with them and show our support in whatever way we could to help to fight breast cancer. We are supporting the 100 mammogram drive as we thought it was very important for people, who are less fortunate than ourselves, to be able to get mammograms.”
The breast cancer awareness Walk of Hope, referred to earlier, attracted a large number of people among them being health care workers, representatives of various organisations and individuals. They were welcomed to the walking event by Mrs Jennifer Gumbs who, in addition to being the President of the Anguilla Cancer Society, is the Senior Health Educator at the Health Authority.
The gathering was addressed by Family Physician, Dr Patwin Adams, who spoke at length on breast cancer and its causes and offered advice to women, in particular, on how to avoid the disease. The walk was both a stimulating and enjoyable experience for the participants, while demonstrating an awareness of breast cancer and the need to safeguard against the disease.
