Breast Cancer… in Guyana

As I am sure many of you are aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Something you may not know is that AVON has a franchise in Guyana and Suriname which led to Guyana’s second annual Breast Cancer Awareness week that took place two weeks ago now. Along those same lines, I mentioned in an earlier post that Wallis has a cancer support group called Periwinkle Club. I am sure that you won’t be surprised that I have become involved with this and help her out where I can. She was a lecturer at the University of Guyana and was presented in her Research Methods class with a proposal by students about breast cancer in Guyana. This proposal inspired her to do the research interview breast cancer patients in Guyana who expressed a need for a support group and networking opportunities. If you want to get something done in Guyana, it happens faster if you know somebody. Or know somebody who knows somebody… Anyways, now that you have some background information – here’s my current community involvement in Guyana…

On October 14^th, I attended the AVON Afternoon Tea and Fashion Show with Wallis and her three year old daughter, Samara. The event was a fundraiser for AVON’s Breast Cancer Awareness committee. I opted for fruit juice (surprise!) and everyone got a little plate of goodies. For the record, that was a hot pepper on the devilled egg and I’m okay. The next day or so, the AVON committee tied pink banners advertising breast cancer awareness around the trees of a major road in Georgetown. On the 17^th, they held a Breast Cancer Awareness Symposium. The Guyanese Minister of Health (MOH) Leslie Ramsammy spoke very well. It sounds like he works very hard and feels very passionate about the health of the people in Guyana. Guyana had its first open heart surgery a few ago, successfully (http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56531009), something that a lot of people didn’t think was possible. I had seen it in the news, but he made me really think about what an amazing feat it was for this country. The Minister is incredibly support of the Breast Cancer Awareness committee. He was inspired by a meeting last year where a group of women came into his office, and one of them took off her shirt and asked him whether her breasts were a thing of beauty or a thing of death.

Most women in Guyana, IF they are diagnosed, are diagnosed with stage 3 or 4 breast cancer. In a country of 700 000, 90-100 Guyanese women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Cancer is among the top three killers in a country with the highest HIV/AIDS infection in South America and the Caribbean, and is ranked above HIV/AIDS deaths. Of cancer types, breast cancer is the #1 killer of women and prostate cancer is the #1 for men. There is a Cancer Institute which has a relationship with a company, Global Imaging Services, which does mammograms among other tests like ultrasound. A mammogram costs $4000 ($20CDN), but for the month of October, they are offering them for $3000($15 CDN) in honour of breast cancer awareness month. In my mind, I was like wow that’s not bad for a mammogram, but then I remember that it is a big deal. That is a lot of money for some people. So much money that they leave it until it is too late. Periwinkle Club offers to subsidize half of the cost of mammograms for its members. The MOH will pay half the cost of cancer treatment. The Minister has a dream that some day the cost of cancer treatment will be free for all Guyanese like HIV drugs are. The best choice for saving lives from cancer is early detection and prevention, but awareness and cost are currently road blocks.

After the Minister, Wallis spoke about cancer and nutrition, looking at it from effects of nutrition on cancer, preventing cancer with food, what to eat while a patient and after treatment. We put the presentation together that day and she did a great job. She is an excellent public speaker and very knowledgeable. The Avon Franchise owner lives in Suriname and she brought with a breast cancer survivor to speak. She has been a survivor for 10 years. She spoke better answering questions than in her original talk. I get nervous when people give advice that they have been given and are treated like experts, it’s the telephone game with your health, but her story of coming to terms with the fact that she had cancer was effective. The last speaker was Thomas Everly from Global Imaging. He was originally a nurse in the States, but my understanding is that he is the manager/owner of the company. He performed mammograms there, but since this is Guyana, there is a woman nurse that does the mammograms. He spoke about breast self exams (BSE) and how to do them and when. He shared some more facts about breast cancer in Guyana and his version of the stages that he sees: Stage three - walking dead and Stage four - as good as dead. He ended with graphic pictures of cancer that got across a message quite effectively.

On Saturday, I woke up early to walk in the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness. It was supposed to be at 6:30am, but it started closer to 7am. The walk was probably around 4km and I was definitely a glowing image in pink by the end of it. Look at me: http://guyanalive.com/gallery/gallery.php?g2_itemId=26846 and

http://guyanalive.com/gallery/gallery.php?g2_itemId=27006 . I was also on the Evening News!