Mass Medical Mission, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has urged Nigerian workers to seek ways of improving their health and wellbeing.

The NGO stressed the importance of this given the fact that Nigeria now has the seventh lowest life expectancy in the world.

In line with this, the NGO will on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, which is Workers Day, hold a mass medical mission in Lagos.

Tagged mission PinkCruise / PinkVISSION, beneficiaries would be screened for 12 most common cancers and other general health.

Also, eye, dental, as well as on-the-spot follow-up and treatment of pre-cancer changes would be carried out.

The venue is Mass Medical Mission House, in Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.

A statement issued in Lagos, signed by Dr. Abia Nzelu, stated that PinkCruise / PinkVISSION is a free community-based health outreach with Mobile Cancer centers, Health Education On The Go, Wellness Wednesday, Premarital Health Promotion Programme, Mission Against Maternal Mortality in Africa (MAMMA) among others.

The PinkCruise is the first of its kind in the world. It is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for screening and treatment (including mammography, endoscopy, colonoscopy, colposcopy, cryotherapy, laboratory, vaccination and surgeries for pre-cancer and early cancer).

Statistics show that worldwide, over 18 million people develop cancer yearly with 9.6 million deaths from cancer every year – about 26,000 cancer deaths a day.

Sadly, 70% of cancer deaths occur in developing countries like Nigeria due to late detection.

“Latest World Health Organisation (WHO) data shows that about two hundred Nigerians die every day from cancer.

“Every day in Nigeria 32 women die of breast cancer, 28 women die of cervical cancer, 16 men die daily from prostate cancer and 14 persons die of liver cancer.

Cancer and its related diseases are major contributors to this low life expectancy. Cancer is no respecter of age, sex, social class or profession; it does not take a break or observe public holidays. Nigeria has lost so many talented and gifted professionals to cancer and its related diseases.

Mass Medical Mission has been spearheading community-based mass cancer screening across the country since 2007. This has contributed to a reduction of cancer deaths in Nigeria from 240 deaths daily to about 200 deaths daily between 2008 and 2018 (WHO data).

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