JOINING HANDS

Nurses and medical professionals at Salmaniya Medical Centre's (SMC) oncology ward are putting their hands together in support of Think Pink's 'i check' campaign which will be launched on Friday.

Four lymphedema certified professionals and two staff nurses enrolled in the masters of nursing programme at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI-MUB) are all supported by the Bahrain-based charity and are taking its campaigning message forward.

They are endorsing self-examination and awareness as the first step in combating breast cancer. Early detection is vital to the effective management and treatment of the disease.

Shahzalan Ibrahim Fadhul is supervisor and senior oncology nurse at SMC and is at present in her second year Master's of Nursing Programme at RCSI-MUB.

She was actively involved with Think Pink's 'i check' campaign last year and has visited several villages to generate greater awareness among local Bahraini women and show them how to carry out breast self-examination.

She said: "After repeated awareness lectures I discovered that although most women knew that they should perform breast self-examination they did not do so because they were scared that they would discover a lump.

"We want to reach out to women and stress that it is vital to do a monthly self-examination because treatment for breast cancer is very effective when a malignant tumor is discovered at an early stage."

The six medical professionals agree that awareness should not be a one-off lecture and doctors need to talk to men and women about breast health and cancer. Eman Tammam, a lymphedema-certified occupational therapist, said: "We need to widen the scope of awareness and incorporate it in our lifestyle and public health. Bahrain has high female obesity which is also a contributing factor to the disease."

Environmental changes, increasing pollution and stress, a change in eating habits and lack of health awareness are major causes of the rising incidence of breast cancer in Bahrain, say health officials.

Nurse Shahzalan has 24 years nursing experience and has been alarmed at the number of young patients diagnosed with breast cancer recently, including men. She said: "In all my years at the hospital I have never seen women as young as in their early 20s being diagnosed with breast cancer. Our youngest patient to date has been a 22-year-old Bahraini girl and this is not an isolated incidence any longer. Also seven male patients were diagnosed with the disease out of which four were Bahraini and three non-Bahraini."

Jules Sprakel, founder of Think Pink, said: "Breast cancer has the leading cancer death in Bahrain. This is our second year that we are working directly with the Ministry of Health, specifically the Oncology Department at SMC to train its nursing staff in managing breast cancer and we feel that this collaboration will best benefit the wider Bahraini community."

The four health care professionals are the first in Bahrain to receive lymphedema certification. They completed an intensive three-week course in July from Foeldi Clinic in Hinterzarten, Germany.

Lymphedema is a condition of localised fluid retention and tissue swelling caused by a compromised lymphatic system. This usually happens after a cancer-related surgery.

Two staff nurses, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist were chosen by the team at SMC and a sponsorship of BD4,180 ($10,800) was paid out of funds raised through Think Pink Bahrain's 2009 golf tournament at the Royal Golf Club, Riffa Views.

Lymphedema training involved teaching types of gentle massage and bandaging which is believed by proponents to encourage the natural circulation of the lymph through the body and relieve the sufferers from the pain and discomfort of the condition.

Think Pink is also sponsoring two oncology nurses at SMC to complete their masters in nursing from RCSI-MUB.