A WOMEN’S movement in Limassol is carrying the message about important health and lifestyle issues to the island’s villages in an effort to raise awareness and provide information to rural areas.
Last Sunday, the Women’s Socialist Movement in Limassol brought oncologist Dr Adamos Adamou to Pachna village as part of a series of speeches the movement has organised, president Lelia Theodorou said.
The first speech had been about drugs and took place in Phini village. Theodorou said they had received an enthusiastic response from their rural audiences who felt a desperate need to be informed on various subjects.
The second speech, in Lania, was about nutrition, and Sunday’s presentation on cancer was the third in line.
Villagers attending the Pachna cancer speech were deeply appreciative of the the opportunity.
“We knew most of what the doctor said, but he provided some new information and details on medicines that were unknown to us before,” villager Androulla Aspri told the Cyprus Mail.
“We don’t have a doctor on a regular basis here,” Aspri added. “It’d be nice if the government could arrange for some mobile units to visit every so often. It’s a journey every time we need to go to Limassol and transportation is not always available,” she added.
Pachna is about half an hour away from Limassol – and transport can be difficult, especially for more elderly residents.
Thedorou said the event had exceeded their expectations and they had had requests to repeat it in Pissouri.
Another villager who went to the presentation, Androulla Polyviou, said it was important that more such events take place in villages. “We’re all retired, isolated people,” she explained.
Oncologist Adamou gave his audience a brief but very informative speech on cancer and answered many questions from the floor.
Approximately 2,500 people are diagnosed with cancer every year in Cyprus, he said, with about 700 to 800 annual cancer deaths. The number one type of cancer among women is breast cancer. For the male population it’s prostate and gall bladder cancer.
Adamou stressed the importance of early diagnosis in successfully battling cancer. Women over 40 should get a regular check-up; it used to be the case that doctors would recommend the check-ups for women over 50, but, he said, the periods between check-ups after 50 allow cancer to grow at a faster pace than at 40. Adamou also stressed that a qualified and experienced doctor should run these tests and not just any doctor.
He stressed the importance for women to check their breasts themselves regularly, going to an expert if they feel a lump, though of course it is preferable for a specialist to detect the cancer before the lump even appears.
However, finding a lump doesn’t necessarily mean cancer since 87 per cent of lumps found are benign.
For cervical cancer early detection is available through smear tests. For healthy women, Adamou said, there should be such a test every three years. Smear tests should begin after a female becomes sexually active.
For the prostate cancer in men, a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test should be run every three years after the age of 50.
Colon cancer, meanwhile, is increasing dramatically in Cyprus, often a product of bad nutrition. Continuous constipation or diarrhea can sometimes be signs, as can hemorrhoids. Adamou emphasised the importance of a healthy diet that included a variety of foods with plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Because of the amount of sunlight there is in Cyprus, skin cancer is also common. People do not take the appropriate measures and expose their skin to UV rays irresponsibly. He recommended good sun block and a visit to an expert if there are signs that there may be skin cancer.
Adamou told his audience only five per cent of cancers were hereditary and that it was a factor mainly in breast and colon cancer.
The good news, the oncologist said, is that there are already three different medicines in the market today that tackle cancer and that are being given as a preventative treatment now, and there are another 120 in line waiting for approval.
“In a few years, chemotherapy will be history,” Adamou added.
