Rotary Club of Ikoyi partners Sarah Ayoka Oduwaiye Foundation for breasts screening

Rotary Club of Ikoyi under the able leadership of Rotarian Funsho Gbogboade in partnership with Sarah Ayoka Oduwaiye Foundation, has embarked on breast screening to ensure early detection of the devastating disease.

The screening exercise which took place at the Lagos Island General Hospital, Lagos State, on Thursday, July 27, 2023, witnessed the screening of over 500 persons.

Speaking to Journalists on the project, Rotarian Funsho Gbogboade, the 39^th President of Rotary Club of Ikoyi said that the breast screening exercise was just one of the numerous projects mapped out under her leadership.

She said “We have so many projects and one of our projects for the year is free breast screening, so that if anything is discovered in the breast, then it can be quickly referred to the hospital. We have doctors, specialists; we have doctors here to screen the breasts. There is enough publicity to make sure that people come out to come and enjoy the free breast screening exercise today. We have screened over 500 people.”

She expressed happiness saying that there was nothing to fear as the exercise just recorded one incident, “We thank God because the result so far has been okay, except for one.”

She added that the reason for the choice of Lagos Island General Hospital is because the hospital is within the jurisdiction of the club. “We are from the Rotary Club of Ikoyi and this is our jurisdiction, Rotarians elsewhere would handle the hospitals elsewhere, therefore we choose the hospital because it is within our catchment.”

Also speaking on other area of assistance the club could render to those who happen to have the disease, she said “Definitely, we have specialists here, this is Dr Akintayo, we have Oduwaiye, he is a Specialist; they will counsel the person and they will refer the person to appropriate unit to do the follow up.”

On how she would raise money for all her capital intensive projects for the year 2023/2024, she answered that Rotarians would raise the money. “Rotarians will make sure that we contribute, Rotarians have contributed to the success of this and we want to thank Eko Electricity Distribution Company, they have contributed immensely to the success of this project. We must also thank Professor Sampson Afolabi; he has contributed from America. This is not the only breast screening we are doing, we are still going to do one or two more before my tenure runs out, it is an expensive project.”

Rotarian Gbogboade hinted that a screening exercise will be carried out by Rotary in May during the group’s Annual Conference which usually takes place in Abeokuta.

On his part, Dr Olayinka Oduwaiye, Founder of Sarah Ayoka Oduwaiye Foundation who said he is based in the UK but comes to Nigeria for Cancer awareness programmes said “We thank God and really appreciative of Rotary Ikoyi, Lagos. I am also a Rotarian, so I am wearing two hats today as a Rotarian from Rotary Ikoyi and also as Founder of Sarah Ayoka Oduwaiye Foundation, and we thank them very much especially the presidency of Rotarian Funsho Gbogboade, they have actually come out to support us for this project.

“We are all here today and we thank God the response has been very good. This is not just a one off thing, this is how we have been doing it. Last week we were in Abeokuta in Owu Palace, doing exactly the same thing in the palace in Abeokuta with the Kabiesi and the Olori, and all the local communities in Abeokuta, not only just scanning their breasts, we also give them health talks, to know what signs and symptoms to look out for and how to look for help.

“Cancer is very expensive thing anywhere in the world, so it is very easy to get it easy and then treat it, rather than going down from one pathology or consultant but if you can catch it early, it is curable, he said”

Oduawaiye spoke on his passion in sensitizing the people on the dangers of Cancer. “I am very passionate about my country because the late Madam Ayoka Oduwaiye died of breast cancer while I was a medical student in Zaria in 1984, that is the basis of all these and starting from there, here we are today, going round Nigeria, America and UK. So we thank Dr. Akintayo, Funsho Gbogboade and all members of Rotary Club of Ikoyi, Lagos and our Chairman here in Nigeria, Dr. Banji Oyegbami, and our chairman in America, Mr Albert Van-Lare, they are all represented in our programmes here throughout this period.”

Dr Akintayo, the current Chief Medical Officer for Ikoyi/Obalende Local Council said “In the community, a lot of people are still ignorant of breast cancer, most at times, our experience in the communities is usually that they spiritualise some of these things, attributing it to evil spirit or someone passing a spell on them, until when we now try to link them up to healthcare facilities where appropriate investigations will be conducted and they will be referred for appropriate treatment.

“The message we are bringing to the community is whenever they notice anything unusual in their system, they should relate to medical practitioners so that they would be able to explore the appropriate interventions to ensure that those things are properly sorted.”

He said cancer is curable particularly if it is discovered early.

Speaking on the causes of cancer he said, “There are so many factors, for instance, there is a kind of belief that it is associated with some other factors, one, what they eat, taking fatty diets, then exposure to some hormones, especially hormones that are not recommended by the doctors, or these family planning pills not all of them; there are some that trigger cancer.” He added that the bottom line is that on no account should they take any hormonal drugs without accurate evaluation of a medical doctor.