SOLIDARITY: International Women’s Club president Sibylle Meier-Klodt, club member Kathy
Pardew, wife of the US ambassador, and Emma Hernandez, club member and wife of the Spanish
ambassador, at the launch of the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
Pardew, wife of the US ambassador, and Emma Hernandez, club member and wife of the Spanish
ambassador, at the launch of the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
The wife of President Georgi Purvanov, expats, famous Bulgarian women, survivors and women going through cancer, are raising awareness of breast cancer, and by so doing, helping women in the country to realise that the big C is not a sin.
THE lingering belief among Bulgarian women that having cancer is somehow a sin is being challenged by a campaign this month in which expatriates and VIPs are among those joining forces.
Those supporting the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign identify themselves by wearing pink ribbons on their lapels.
The aim of the week dedicated to Breast Health Awareness, which is held all over the world, is to raise awareness and also funding.
"Here in Bulgaria we hope to raise money towards a mobile mammography unit for rural areas," said Ann Stewart of the steering committee for the Breast Health Campaign.
Emma Hernandez, one of the most active participants and initiators of the campaign since last year, said: "This is an illness you can cure if you know in time".
She said that in Venezuela the campaign was very aggressive, with important people and famous faces taking part.
"Toca te" (touch you) is the motto of the campaign there, but to Hernandez it seems that a different approach is appropriate in Bulgaria.
"This is a campaign about building awareness and our main goal is that one million Bulgarian women to hear and be aware of this," she told The Echo.
"This is a mentality issue in Bulgarian women and you have to be careful with it," she said.
"Women in both countries always think that they are not enough good," she said, comparing the characteristics of Spanish and Bulgarian women.
"But the final word is to believe that you are as good as all the rest and that you can make it - you have to believe this, be sure," she said.
Last year's campaign was smaller-scale, and this year's is being supported by an expanded group.
Initially the campaign in Britain was called the big "C" because nobody was willing to talk about explicitly about cancer. Many families had been affected by cancer and members had survived, Stewart recalled.
"Now people feel a lot more hopeful and that is what we are trying to do with the campaign. And also it is useful for partners to know about it," she said.
She said that one thing missing in Bulgaria is groups where people can go and discuss what they are going through.
"It is important that people have to fixed in their heads that if you catch it early, and have the necessary treatment, survival rates are very good," Stewart said.
Suzanne Barret, vice president of the International Women's Club, agreed that what was most important was to make women aware of what they can do and how they can overcome the disease.
"Awareness is the most important thing that we are trying to achieve...all every woman has to do is to check herself monthly," Barret said.
She said that the campaign was aimed not only at women but also at the whole society. "On part of the IWC we gain nothing, apart from helping the women of Bulgaria to raise their awareness," she said.
Awareness of different visual body signs or symptoms that could easily be observed by anyone and that are possibly related to cancer is also significant.
Experts all agree that early detection is an important factor in reducing the death rate from cancer, whether this is done on one's own or through participation in organised public health programmes.
The most obvious ways to prevent people dying from cancer are either to find cures for the different forms of the disease, or to find ways to stop the development of clinical cancer in the first instance. At the present time, cancer prevention involves determining the causes of cancer (risk determinants) from among those factors shown to be associated with the development of the disease by epidemiological studies (risk factors).
Primary prevention in the context of cancer is an important area of public health, Nikolai Katev, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Chief Operation Centre Secretary General AECDT, said.
Bulgaria was lagging behind in this respect. "Prophylaxis and screening are a complete miss in the country," he said.
Secondary prevention and screening methods in the US have led to a decrease of 30 per cent in mortality.
Screening is a term frequently applied to the situation where tests are used to indicate whether an individual has a high or low chance of getting cancer. Detecting cancers at an early, asymptomatic stage could lead to decreases in the mortality rates for certain cancers, particularly for those forms of cancer in which early detection prevents metastatic dissemination.
It is very frequently the case that the probability of treatment of cancer is increased, sometimes very substantially, if the cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage. "Sometimes the development of the histological forms develop like an avalanche," Katev said. In such cases, women die quickly.
Awareness of the significance of signs and symptoms is important, but all too frequently cancers that exhibit symptoms are at an advanced stage.
"Each woman needs to go for a mammography once a year if she is over the age of 40," he said, adding that a woman should monthly perform an auto palpation or self-examination in the period after menstruation.
Programmes and seminars have been held for prophylaxis, but only a small part of educated women participates in screening exams, Katev said.
In other cases, women did not respond to the need to check for breast cancer because they believed it could not happen to them.
"The earlier in the process that a cancer can be diagnosed and treated, the better this is for the patient," survivor V.R. told The Echo.
Katev considers cancer, along with AIDS and malaria (in the developing world), to be one of the scourges of the 21st century.
He said that about 1500 to 2000 women a year get breast cancer and about 500 die from it. Each year, almost 33 per cent of people who have cancer, die.
Mammography can detect breast tumours at a clinically undetectable stage. The reduction of mortality in those actually attending screening is about one third, he said.
Some leading risk factors regarding cancer, and breast cancer in particular, are known.
One is heritage, because there are families with a pattern of each generation of women contracting breast cancer.
Smoking and lifestyle are among other risk factors. Passive smokers are also at risk, including from environmental tobacco smoke. This is particularly so in Bulgaria, where there are few restrictions on smoking, and they are not well-enforced.
For women, an ill-fitting bra, putting tissue under pressure, could be a risk factor.
He dismissed as myths the ideas that breast cancers could have been caused by the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant or by radiation from Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear power plant.
"The organisation of health care and the health care culture can prevent breast cancer, while in Bulgaria literacy on that matter is not as great," Katev said.
Pollutants from cars and industry can also have an impact on the incidence of cancer.
Some who have contracted cancer seek the healthier lifestyle of the countryside, away from the pollution of the city. Some also spurn drugs and liquor.
People who have survived various kinds of cancer, and family members of less fortunate patients, are looking hopefully to the future and the development of new technology and better global awareness.
THE lingering belief among Bulgarian women that having cancer is somehow a sin is being challenged by a campaign this month in which expatriates and VIPs are among those joining forces.
Those supporting the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign identify themselves by wearing pink ribbons on their lapels.
The aim of the week dedicated to Breast Health Awareness, which is held all over the world, is to raise awareness and also funding.
"Here in Bulgaria we hope to raise money towards a mobile mammography unit for rural areas," said Ann Stewart of the steering committee for the Breast Health Campaign.
Emma Hernandez, one of the most active participants and initiators of the campaign since last year, said: "This is an illness you can cure if you know in time".
She said that in Venezuela the campaign was very aggressive, with important people and famous faces taking part.
"Toca te" (touch you) is the motto of the campaign there, but to Hernandez it seems that a different approach is appropriate in Bulgaria.
"This is a campaign about building awareness and our main goal is that one million Bulgarian women to hear and be aware of this," she told The Echo.
"This is a mentality issue in Bulgarian women and you have to be careful with it," she said.
"Women in both countries always think that they are not enough good," she said, comparing the characteristics of Spanish and Bulgarian women.
"But the final word is to believe that you are as good as all the rest and that you can make it - you have to believe this, be sure," she said.
Last year's campaign was smaller-scale, and this year's is being supported by an expanded group.
Initially the campaign in Britain was called the big "C" because nobody was willing to talk about explicitly about cancer. Many families had been affected by cancer and members had survived, Stewart recalled.
"Now people feel a lot more hopeful and that is what we are trying to do with the campaign. And also it is useful for partners to know about it," she said.
She said that one thing missing in Bulgaria is groups where people can go and discuss what they are going through.
"It is important that people have to fixed in their heads that if you catch it early, and have the necessary treatment, survival rates are very good," Stewart said.
Suzanne Barret, vice president of the International Women's Club, agreed that what was most important was to make women aware of what they can do and how they can overcome the disease.
"Awareness is the most important thing that we are trying to achieve...all every woman has to do is to check herself monthly," Barret said.
She said that the campaign was aimed not only at women but also at the whole society. "On part of the IWC we gain nothing, apart from helping the women of Bulgaria to raise their awareness," she said.
Awareness of different visual body signs or symptoms that could easily be observed by anyone and that are possibly related to cancer is also significant.
Experts all agree that early detection is an important factor in reducing the death rate from cancer, whether this is done on one's own or through participation in organised public health programmes.
The most obvious ways to prevent people dying from cancer are either to find cures for the different forms of the disease, or to find ways to stop the development of clinical cancer in the first instance. At the present time, cancer prevention involves determining the causes of cancer (risk determinants) from among those factors shown to be associated with the development of the disease by epidemiological studies (risk factors).
Primary prevention in the context of cancer is an important area of public health, Nikolai Katev, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Chief Operation Centre Secretary General AECDT, said.
Bulgaria was lagging behind in this respect. "Prophylaxis and screening are a complete miss in the country," he said.
Secondary prevention and screening methods in the US have led to a decrease of 30 per cent in mortality.
Screening is a term frequently applied to the situation where tests are used to indicate whether an individual has a high or low chance of getting cancer. Detecting cancers at an early, asymptomatic stage could lead to decreases in the mortality rates for certain cancers, particularly for those forms of cancer in which early detection prevents metastatic dissemination.
It is very frequently the case that the probability of treatment of cancer is increased, sometimes very substantially, if the cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage. "Sometimes the development of the histological forms develop like an avalanche," Katev said. In such cases, women die quickly.
Awareness of the significance of signs and symptoms is important, but all too frequently cancers that exhibit symptoms are at an advanced stage.
"Each woman needs to go for a mammography once a year if she is over the age of 40," he said, adding that a woman should monthly perform an auto palpation or self-examination in the period after menstruation.
Programmes and seminars have been held for prophylaxis, but only a small part of educated women participates in screening exams, Katev said.
In other cases, women did not respond to the need to check for breast cancer because they believed it could not happen to them.
"The earlier in the process that a cancer can be diagnosed and treated, the better this is for the patient," survivor V.R. told The Echo.
Katev considers cancer, along with AIDS and malaria (in the developing world), to be one of the scourges of the 21st century.
He said that about 1500 to 2000 women a year get breast cancer and about 500 die from it. Each year, almost 33 per cent of people who have cancer, die.
Mammography can detect breast tumours at a clinically undetectable stage. The reduction of mortality in those actually attending screening is about one third, he said.
Some leading risk factors regarding cancer, and breast cancer in particular, are known.
One is heritage, because there are families with a pattern of each generation of women contracting breast cancer.
Smoking and lifestyle are among other risk factors. Passive smokers are also at risk, including from environmental tobacco smoke. This is particularly so in Bulgaria, where there are few restrictions on smoking, and they are not well-enforced.
For women, an ill-fitting bra, putting tissue under pressure, could be a risk factor.
He dismissed as myths the ideas that breast cancers could have been caused by the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant or by radiation from Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear power plant.
"The organisation of health care and the health care culture can prevent breast cancer, while in Bulgaria literacy on that matter is not as great," Katev said.
Pollutants from cars and industry can also have an impact on the incidence of cancer.
Some who have contracted cancer seek the healthier lifestyle of the countryside, away from the pollution of the city. Some also spurn drugs and liquor.
People who have survived various kinds of cancer, and family members of less fortunate patients, are looking hopefully to the future and the development of new technology and better global awareness.
