The Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (BCFE) launched the 'dous fil khir' (Indulge in Charity) initiative at the start of 2017 to help a broader segment of society – especially youth – take a bigger part in raising breast cancer awareness.
One of the main activities of the initiative, titled With Prescription, involves a collaboration with the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) to train medical students.
Without Prescription, which started in April and will run through November, aims at training medical students at various universities all over the country to perform canvasses to raise awareness about cancer throughout the country, particularly among the youth.
The campaign involves training 40 students from IFMSA to be qualified trainers in breast cancer awareness and to have essential communication skills to reach out to their target audience.
Students will also form canvasses to talk to residents of different governorates at local BCFE branches and public hospitals in various and remote places in the country.
"We believe at BCFE in the pivotal role of youth in creating a brighter future in terms of health," Ghada Mostapha, head of Public Relations at BCFE, told Ahram Online.
"Lectures and workshops given to 40 students representing 21 medical schools aim at ensuring they are qualified to communicate with all segments of society and shed light on all aspects of breast cancer, including fact checks, early detection, prevention strategies and methods of treatments."
IFMSA-Egypt is a non-profit student-run organisation that represents more than 80,000 medical students all over Egypt.
The federation is represented through more than 4,500 medical students in 23 local committees at numerous medical schools. It aims at offering future Egyptian physicians a comprehensive introduction to global health issues by taking part in the international medical students’ community to broaden their spectrum and reach their full potential.
Cancer cases in Egypt number at 166 for every 100,000 people, according to the National Cancer Registry Program (NCRP), which makes the rate of documented cancer diagnosis in the country one of the lowest internationally.
Liver cancer comes at the highest instance of cancer at 23.8 percent of all cases, followed by breast cancer at 15.4 percent and bladder cancer at 6.9 percent.
