The fact that Cancer and its related risk factors are the major causes of untimely death in Nigeria, which the global cancer burden has risen to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer deaths in 2018 up from 14 million new cases and 8.8 million deaths in 2016.
To address this problem, mass medical mission (mmm) has deployed the pilot set of Mobile Cancer Centres (aka “the PinkCruise”) to take wholistic preventive healthcare to Nigerians.
To maximize the impact of Mission PinkCruise & Mission PinkVISSION, mmm / NCPP (National Cancer Prevention Programme) is set to launch a campaign, tagged … Health Education On The Go!
This campaign involves the deployment of a fleet of special buses which are designed to combine provision of health education with public transportation.
Mission PinkCruise / Mission PinkVISSION are initiatives aimed at taking wholistic preventive cancer and healthcare to the grassroots.
This is important given the fact that Nigeria now has the seventh lowest life expectancy in the world (down from eleventh lowest in 2014). Most Nigerians do not live to reap the fruit of their labour.
The PinkCruise 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).
The pilot phase of Mission PinkCruise is currently ongoing in Lagos, following a 12-months schedule which is available on the campaign website (pinkcruise.org).
The eye-care aspect of Mission PinkCruise is known as Mission PinkVISSION, where “VISSION” stands for Voluntary Integrated Sight Saving Initiative Of Nigeria
This programme according to Dr Abia Nzelu will be launched as follows Tuesday, December 4, 2018 (Global Good Tuesday) which would be held at mass medical mission House, 31 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos
Global GoodTuesday (the first Tuesday in December) is a day set aside to encourage, inspire and celebrate universal generosity.
GoodTuesday is the first day to kick off a tide of year-round giving (see givingtide.org). It is a call to action for all to give back so that humankind may be uplifted.
In many cultures and religions, Tuesday is regarded as the most auspicious weekday. For example, JudeoChristian tradition regards Tuesday as a day of multiplied blessings.
This is because in the Bible on the Third Day of Creation the phrase “and God saw that it was good” is mentioned twice (see Genesis 1:10 and Genesis 1:12). All the other days have this phrase mentioned only once (except for the second day, Monday, where it is not mentioned at all). Similarly, in Yoruba mythology, Tuesday is a day of double blessing and victory (‘Ọjọ Isẹgun’).
GoodTuesday is therefore, an ideal day to launch the life-saving initiative – Health Education On The Go!
Editor, South-West,
Lagos Post Online
Email: raji_adebayong@yahoo.com
M: 08034094059
