Khupe to lead breast cancer walk

MDC-T president Thokozani Khupe will on Saturday lead a breast cancer awareness walk to highlight the plight of women suffering from the killer disease and call on the government to avail clinical cancer testing centres across the country.

The march, organised by the Thokozani Khupe Cancer Foundation (TKCF), will start from the Bulawayo City Hall car park.

The former Deputy Prime Minister is a cancer survivor.

Khupe is urging women to go for breast cancer testing to ensure early detection.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women across the world.

"Early detection of cancer saves lives," the TKCF media liaison officer, Witness Dube, said.

"The sad reality is that in Africa, women only discover that they have breast cancer or any other cancers when the disease is already in its later stages, by which time chances of survival would have been greatly reduced."

The TKCF, which was launched in 2012, seeks to alleviate the plight of cancer patients by offering advocacy campaigns, early detection programmes and assisting in policy formulation in relation to cancer issues.

"The TKCF encourages women to be cancer aware by continuously feeling their breasts, so that they would detect anything unusual and to get timely treatment," Dube said.

"As women self-examine their breast, some of the early signs of breast cancer to look out for include having a lump in one's breast, a painful breast or armpit, or a discharge from the nipple. However, self-examination of breast cancer symptoms does not replace one's regular visits to the doctor for a mammogram test, where possible."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, according to the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe. Early detection of abnormalities gives doctors a better chance to offer effective treatment.