14th October 2024: Cricketer, cancer survivor, and philanthropist Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that works extensively in the field of public health in India with a focus on cancer control, will be hosting breast cancer awareness camps across 17 states of India in October 2024 on the occasion of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The camps will be held in Goa, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Delhi.
Breast Cancer Awareness Workshops will be held as part of these camps, wherein the Foundation aims to educate around 25,000 women, both directly and indirectly, on the importance of breast cancer awareness, the risk factors of breast cancer, understanding of signs and symptoms, and how to perform self-breast examinations for early detection. Throughout the month, Breast Cancer Screening Sessions will also be held with the aim of screening around 10,000 women across 17 states for early-stage detection of breast cancer. The screening will be done free of charge in underresourced communities.
Regarding the need for more awareness and screening for early detection of breast cancer, Mr. Yuvraj Singh said, “Early detection is the key to fighting cancer effectively. Through YouWeCan, we aim to raise awareness about breast cancer and provide free screening to women across the country. No one should lose their life because they were unaware of their condition or couldn’t afford timely treatment. We are committed to saving lives by ensuring that every woman has access to the knowledge and resources she needs to fight this disease.”
In India, a woman dies of breast cancer every 8 minutes (Source: Breast Cancer India, a complete resource on breast cancer in India). The high mortality rate is due to a lack of awareness and delay in screening and diagnosis. As per NFHS-5, only 9 out of 100 women have ever participated in breast cancer screening in India. Many women with breast cancer have no symptoms. This is why regular breast cancer screening is so important. The first step to fighting cancer is by fighting ignorance for a disease that affects all the women of India and is projected to grow up to 3 million by 2023 around the world.
The YouWeCan Foundation’s breast cancer initiatives aim to educate, detect, and empower. So far, through various initiatives taken by the Foundation, over 1.22 lakh women have been screened for breast cancer, more than 2.48 lakh women have been educated and trained on breast cancer, and 57 women are undergoing treatment.
In October 2021, the YouWeCan Foundation launched a pilot project called ‘Swasth Mahila Swasth Goa’ in collaboration with the Government of Goa and the SBI Foundation to screen 1 lakh women for breast cancer. The Foundation introduced a low-cost technology innovation for breast cancer screening and deployed 20 such devices across primary health centers and community health centers in Goa along with a 10-member team to train auxiliary nurses, midwives, and Asha workers to conduct the screening. 1.2 lakh women have been screened in Goa till date; 2,495 suspected cases were found, of which 62 turned out to be positive cases. 57 of those women are currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Due to its massive success and enhanced demand for continued support on the ground for re-screening of the age-eligible population, the Swasth Mahila Swasth Goa project has been renewed for another 2 years with a goal of screening an additional 1,05,000 women in Goa.
In June 2024, the YouWeCan Foundation launched the ‘Swasth Mahila Swasth Bharat’ project in collaboration with Xiaomi India to screen 1.5 lakh women by 2025 for breast cancer across 15 aspirational districts in 15 states of India. The Foundation has already initiated screenings in several states under this project.
