By Hamizza Jasman
GOMBAK, 24 October 2014: The National Breast Cancer Awareness campaign with the theme ‘Caring for You and Your Loved Ones’ was held at IIUM recently to increase the level of awareness among the people. The campaign is held annually.
The event was organised by Psychological Services Unit and Women for Progress Research Unit, IIUM and was attended by female lecturers and students of IIUM, including male students.
Males have 1 to 5 per cent tendency to get breast cancer, according to Manjit Kaur, who is the community staff nurse of Breast Cancer Welfare Association (BCWA).
The organiser brought talk, demonstration on breast self-examination and a forum to the audiences to share information and experience. The activities gave a lot of knowledge to the audiences to enhance their awareness of breast cancer.
Noriha Muda and Noor Wajihah Rufaidah Tuah who attended the event felt that more of such health event should be organised in IIUM as the IIUM community should be exposed to this important event.
œI hope this kind of event should be brought more often to us, even though we already know about the disease but we dont know how to prevent and who we should refer to. We feel embarrassed to ask others especially about lumps in the breast, Noriha said.
œSo, by the demonstration, we can examine by ourselves and take early prevention, she added.
The demonstration on breast self-examination provided the techniques to educate the audience on breast health awareness, thus any detection and possibility of suffering breast cancer by any one would be advised to take immediate steps.
Manjit Kaur said, œWe always ask them to do self breast examination.
Meanwhile, Mushidah Zakiah Mohd Akran, a dietician at Prince Court Medical Centre, in her talk on ‘Healthy Eating for Breast Cancer Prevention’, explained the basic dietary requirement for breast cancer prevention.
She also tried to make the people understand that lifestyle change was vital in preventing cancer.
œThe component for lifestyle changes are healthy diet, physical activities. Of course, we talked about no smoking and psychological health, she mentioned.
Another interesting session was the sharing forum by Dr. Aldila Dato Isahak, who could be considered a survivor of breast cancer, who is also a lecturer in IIUM and Vice President BCWA. For her, emotional and psychological supports are the most important to breast cancer patients.
When asked about the aspect that was important from social support she answered: œEmotional. Definitely emotional social support, not just for me, but also for other patients and survivors as well, because we have to always look at the positive side of thing.”
Other than that Dr. Aldila said she needs to know about her emotional stability because it will affect her loved ones.
Dr. Hariyati Shahrima Abdul Majid from Health Psychologist, IIUM and the organiser for the event, mentioned the aim of the event was to highlight those people who are living with and caring for people with breast cancer who needed emotional support.
Psychological Services Unit and Women for Progress Research Unit, IIUM should offer support to all people, especially IIUM staffs and students, Dr. Hariyati added.