28 Oct 2020

Cancer is one of the major killer diseases and therefore, the fight against it needs concerted efforts, Jwaneng Deputy Mayor, Cllr Themba Pema  has said.

When making a keynote address at the Jwaneng breast cancer awareness campaign on Wednesday, Mr Pema said that it was unfortunate that cancer often struck the youth on whom the future of the country and even households lied.

Mr Pema also expressed his concern at fear of testing by Batswana, especially men and advised both genders to make it a habit to go for annual general check-ups, saying this would help in detection of diseases such as cancer at an early stage when there was still hope of treating them. Mr Pema said that in most cases, cancer patients and their close associates felt hopeless when the disease struck. 

He said it was therefore vital to give them hope in the dire times, and that such campaigns could go a long way in achieving that.

Mr Pema said it was therefore soothing to see men coming out in support of women, who were the most affected by breast cancer. 

He also advised Batswana to introspect on their lifestyles, such as their diets, urging them to resort to traditional foods.

“Although we used to have such diseases as cancer even way back, they were not so rife as they are nowadays and this might even be a result of the way we eat. 

So it is better to be cautious and eat traditional foods because one never knows how these other foods can affect you,” he said.

He said that the reasoning that traditional food was not that tasty was just a lame excuse as what was important was not the taste, but the benefits of the food to the body and one’s general health.

Jwaneng Deputy District Commissioner, Mr Lesang Kgomoetsile also urged men to support women as they were the most affected by breast cancer.

Attendants were also advised to take note of early symptoms that may indicate the existence of breast cancer, such as unequal growth of their breast, lump in the breast or armpit, irritation or dimpling of breast skin, puckering of the nipple or pain in the nipple area and nipple discharges such as blood among other signs. ends