Event to be held in Manchester this week
THE UK’s first Asian Women’s Breast Cancer Support Group will be hosted in Manchester this week.
The group is being hosted at the Nightingale Centre and Genesis Prevention Centre at University Hospital South Manchester and has been organised by the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal – the UK’s only charity entirely dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer.
The event, at 1pm on Friday 7 October 2011, aims to encourage early diagnosis within Asian communities and improve the quality of breast awareness literature for Asian women. Organisers also hope to improve cross-cultural communication between doctors, nurses and Asian women, whilst providing a safe environment for Asian women who have had breast cancer to talk about their experiences.
The support group has been organised following last year’s Asian Women’s Breast Awareness Conference. The conference – also instigated and arranged by Genesis – was the first of its kind in the UK.
The conference addressed research that Genesis has undertaken into the immense disparity between the uptake of breast screening among ethnic groups compared to the general population.
Several key issues were identified, with one of the main ones being the fact that many Asian women often ignored their invitations for routine mammograms – some were also afraid to come forward even when they had a breast lump. Other cultural issues, such as women being afraid that a mammogram meant taking their clothes off in public, and not having access to information they could understand, also meant many Asian women avoided breast screening.
The support group aims to address these problems and help correct them. Lester Barr, chairman of the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal, comments: “This event has been a long time coming. Genesis has worked tirelessly to uncover the reasons why breast screening uptake across Asian communities is so poor. Thanks to our studies and last year’s conference, we now have the answers and the tools with which to combat it.”
Prof Anil Jain, breast screening consultant radiologist at the Nightingale Centre and Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre adds: “We hope this support group will help to promote breast screening among the UK’s Asian community, improve their breast cancer awareness and help change cultural attitudes towards breast cancer. Above all, by improving this situation, we hope to save lives.”
The interactive session, which is open to members of the public, will be of interest to anyone who has had breast cancer or the husbands, relatives and friends of women who have suffered from the disease within ethnic minority communities.
