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THE fight against breast cancer in Bahrain has been given a hand thanks to the inspirational Think Pink campaign.
In an effort to reach out to a wider community the charity has donated 15,000 special pink plexus gloves to the staff and students of Pakistan School in Isa Town.
"There was much excitement when students made an iconic human ribbon last year to highlight the annual cancer awareness campaign and this initiative has seamlessly flowed in after that," said Jules Sprakel, founder of Think Pink.
Three hundred girls from the Pakistan School formed a human ribbon last October wearing pink scarves sponsored by the Pakistan Women's Association (PWA).
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in females worldwide with one in eight women being diagnosed with it by the age of 85.
Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer and every 12 minutes a woman loses her life to it. Worldwide over 1.2 million cases are identified each year, including one in every 100 males. According to the Ministry of Health statistics, every year 74 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in Bahrain.
Think Pink, in collaboration with the association, has also handed 2,500 information and self examination leaflets printed in Urdu to the staff and students of the school in the hope that it will create more awareness among women belonging to a totally different economic and social strata.
"It was a case of making this resource (pink plexus glove) available to a different community. The pink plexus glove is a magnifying glass for the fingers and helps in a more effective and thorough self-examination. It is approved by the FDA and endorsed by three international breast cancer groups," said Ms Sprakel at the event.
Think Pink, launched in 2004, raised a record BD42,000 last year and handed over the funds to Bahrain Cancer Society.
The pink plexus glove was a donation worth BD10,000 by the Bahrain Round Table (BRT). "Round Table exists to support the community and we try and look where we can make a difference in our way. We purchased these kits to increase breast cancer awareness in the kingdom," said Tijay Majiyagbe, a member of BRT and director of Arindon.
In total 2,800 pink plexus kits, all donated by tablers and their supporters, were ordered from America. The bulk of these have been donated to the Pakistan School and the rest will be handed over to the oncology department at Salmaniya Medical Complex and a local Arabic school on the island.
Berlitz provided the necessary Urdu translations of information leaflets and Manaf K. Al Anni, director of Berlitz, said: "It is part of our national mandate to give back to the community. We think this is a worthy cause as everyone has a mother, daughter, sister or aunt and we are happy to help in getting the word out."
Think Pink enjoys support of different communities, social organisations and corporations in the kingdom and PWA has been actively involved with Think Pink for the past three years.
"PWA and Think Pink have tried to reach out to a group of women who may have not had the opportunity to hear the message before. We will make a presentation to teachers and older girls to make them understand the importance of self examination and the photograph of the human ribbon event on the school wall will be a reminder of the discussion that self examination is not a one-off activity but a monthly exercise," said Mary Ahmed, president of PWA.
