Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Mission Delegation on Hand To Applaud Tanzania’s Progress in Raising Awareness of Breast Cancer
DAR es SALAAM, Tanzania – October 19, 2008 – Support from the U.S.-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, global leader in the breast cancer movement, today helped launch the first Tanzania Race for the Cure®, organized by the Tanzania Breast Cancer Foundation in collaboration with Komen for the Cure. The fund-raising event was held to build awareness of breast cancer and to help increase access to life-saving early detection and treatment options for Tanzanians.
Hundreds of participants, including Tanzania’s First Lady Salma Kikwete, former First Lady Anna Mkapa, U.S. Ambassador Mark Green, Tanzanian government officials, advocates and breast cancer survivors turned out for the event.
“The first Tanzania Race for the Cure gives me great hope and inspiration,” said U.S. actress and Komen Ambassador Gabrielle Union, who participated in a Komen mission to Ghana to launch the Ghana Breast Cancer Alliance the previous week. “Women, together, can create awareness about this disease and give hope to those who need it most.”
Lack of Access to Treatment
It is estimated that approximately 2,500 women with breast cancer register as patients in hospitals in Tanzania each year. Of that number, only about 300 of them make their way to Tanzania’s only specialist cancer hospital, Ocean Road Cancer institute in Dar es Salaam – the only hospital in a country of 35 million people to offer cancer treatment including chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Most women in Tanzania who are diagnosed with breast cancer and undergo surgery for it fail to get further treatment, like chemotherapy or radiation. Available statistics do not account for the estimated thousands of Tanzanian women who do not even know they have breast cancer, who can’t afford to get to Dar es Salaam or who are restricted from getting medical attention by strong forces of stigma, misinformation and traditional healing methods that have proven ineffective against the disease.
The Tanzania Breast Cancer Foundation, which was formed earlier this year from a core group of breast cancer survivors and volunteers, is the only such non-governmental organization of its kind in Tanzania. To build awareness of the burden of breast cancer in that country, the Foundation has publicized the story of one Tanzanian woman name Zubeda who discovered a breast lump in 2003 and visited a traditional healer for help. When that approach did not work, she reluctantly sought medical attention.
Zubeda’s Story: Too Little, Too Late
By the time she agreed to undergo a mastectomy in 2006, the cancer had spread. By the last months of 2007, her arm was so swollen and painful she could not move it or touch it. The only painkillers she had were weak and ineffective as the cancer invaded her liver, lungs and bones. Before Zubeda died in March 2008, she agreed to be photographed.
“The pictures show a woman who died – needlessly and in great pain – because she did not have the right information at her fingertips. By not knowing about early detection and the curability and survivability of breast cancer in its earliest stages, Zubeda lost her life,” said Angela Kuzila, exective director of the Tanzania Breast Cancer Foundation.
She said the Tanzania Race for the Cure event would build rapport among women who face the common threat of breast cancer and would help raise awareness about the critical importance of early detection in saving many more women’s lives.
The Tanzania Breast Cancer Foundation is committed to helping women with breast cancer in Tanzania and to help improve appropriate treatment and support services. The Foundation was launched with grants from the Netherlands Embassy and the Foundation for Civil Liberty Foundation.
