How it all started

In 2008, a Professor Ifeoma Okoye, a Professor of Radiology, during the course of her duty in the Radiology Department, UNTH, Enugu started noticing an increased trend in number of late presentation of cancers and she found out from the patients that low level of awareness amongst other factors, was the cause of these late presentations. Instead of sitting down and doing nothing about it, Prof Okoye and her colleagues took up the challenge to bridge this gap in knowledge and in April 2008 by creating Breast Without Spot (BWS) with assistance from the Centre for Minority Health of the MD Anderson Research Center Houston Texas and the African Cancer Prevention Group, with the main aim to enthrone actions and policies that will ensure that all women in Nigeria are aware of/ and practice ‘Best Breast/Cervical Practices’ and have access to ‘Breast/Cervical Cancer Screening and Care’, regardless of where they reside and their ability to pay’. This has recently extended to include prevention and early detection of prostate cancer and other non-communicable diseases with shared risk factors such as diabetes, heart diseases and lung diseases.

To achieve this, BWS uses community-based education to build a cadre of ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ Activists search for opportunities to create awareness about breast/cervical cancers to women groups and women one-on one. BWS also advocates to policy makers and diaspora organizations for the provision of medical services and skill transfer/research to assist tertiary and secondary health care providers to create sustainable cancer resources.

The first set of activities embarked on by BWS immediately after its unveiling in 2008 were cancer awareness seminars which were conducted in four grass-roots communities in Enugu State, Nigeria and women were screened for Breast and Cervical Cancer. A Training of Trainer session was also conducted for Healthcare providers on how to conduct community prevention awareness for both cancers. Skill transfer was additionally achieved for Radiologists, Pathologists and breast surgeons. 30 volunteer activists were trained at Isi-Uzo LG to pilot the BWS project idea. Since its inception, BWS has touched the lives of more than 50,000 women, men and youths across Nigeria in real terms- through one-on-one contact, distribution of Information Education and Communication (IEC)  materials extensively, training of Youth corpers in 28 States, contributed to re-training of Healthcare providers from 31 States, trained medical students from 13 of the 32 medical schools in the country, instigated various cancer and other non-communicable diseases awareness (with shared risk factors as cancer) initiatives across Nigeria.

BWS has since established cancer control collaborations with different UK/American research centres and medical teams, championed successful advocacy to policy makers and opinion molders. BWS has many ongoing initiatives and projects all yer round in its bid to achieve its aim of enthroning prevention and early detection of cancer and other non-communicable diseases with shared risk factors. The NGO is set to do even greater exploits in the coming years.