May 1 every year is designated as International Workers’ Day. It is also referred to as Labour Day or simply as Workers’ Day or May Day. It is a public holiday to celebrate the working class and to speak out for better working conditions.
There is no better day than this to reflect on the health of Nigerian workers and professionals and to seek ways of improving the health and wellbeing of Nigeria’s workforce and productive population. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized given the fact that Nigeria now has the seventh lowest life expectancy in the world.
Cancer and its related diseases are major contributors to this low life expectancy. Cancer is no respecter of age, sex, social class or profession; it does not take a break or observe public holidays. Nigeria has lost so many talented and gifted professionals to cancer and its related diseases.
Worldwide, over 18 million people develop cancer yearly with 9.6 million deaths from cancer every year – about 26,000 cancer deaths a day. Sadly, 70% of cancer deaths occur in developing countries like Nigeria due to late detection. Latest WHO data shows that about two hundred Nigerians die every day from cancer. Every day in Nigeria 32 women die of breast cancer, 28 women die of cervical cancer, 16 men die daily from prostate cancer and 14 persons die of liver cancer.
To address this problem, Mass Medical Mission initiated the National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP), which has been spearheading community-based mass cancer screening across the country since 2007. This has contributed to a reduction of cancer deaths in Nigeria from 240 deaths daily to about 200 deaths daily between 2008 and 2018 (WHO data).
Mass Medical Mission has now scaled up its effort to include several free life-saving initiatives such as Mission PinkCruise / PinkVISSION (free community-based health outreaches with Mobile Cancer Centres also known as PinkCruise, Health Education On The Go, Wellness Wednesday, Premarital Health Promotion Programme, Mission Against Maternal Mortality in Africa (MAMMA) among others.
The PinkCruise is the first of its kind in the world. It is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for screening and treatment (including mammography, endoscopy, colonoscopy, colposcopy, cryotherapy, laboratory, vaccination and surgeries for pre-cancer and early cancer).
To mark the 2019 Workers’ Day, an edition of Mission PinkCruise / PinkVISSION is scheduled as follows:
· Date: Tuesday (April 30, 2019 @ 8am)
Venue: Paraclete House: 26 Ajani Olujare St, Alaka Estate, Surulere, Lagos
2. Date: Wednesday, May 1, 2019 @ 8am (Wellness Wednesday)
Venue: mass medical mission House: 31 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos
COMPONENT: Screening for the twelve most common cancers, general health screening, eye and dental screening as well as on-the-spot follow-up and treatment of precancer changes.
Above all, Mission PinkCruise / PinkVISSION is FREE to both the host and beneficiaries
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