Hong Kong launches awareness month to support breast cancer survivors

Cultivate survivorship by Celebrating, Appreciating and Requiting to manage the fear of breast cancer.(Xinhua/ Zhu Yi)

The Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation (HKBCF) has officially announced the month of May each year as “Breast Cancer Survivorship Month, to honor the brave survivors who have fought vigorously against breast cancer and also to raise public awareness of breast heath.

Breast cancer is most common type of cancer among women around world. In Hong Kong, 24.1% of all new registered cancer cases among women is breast cancer, which has become the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women.

The “Hong Kong Breast Cancer Registry Report No.4, covered a cohort of 7,241 patients, shows 1,013 patients (14.0%) were under the age of 40, 5,771 (79.7%) were aged 40-70, and 369 (5.1%) were aged above 70. The newly publishedreport demonstrates that most cases were not inherited, which takes up 90% of patients, but were closely related to lifestyle-related risk factor such as lack of exercise (85.4%), high level of stress (46.0%).

Mrs. Elisa FOK, Chairman of the HKBCF .(Xinhua/Zhu Yi)

Every day, 8 women in Hong Kong are diagnosed, at least one dies of breast cancer.

Elisa FOK, Chairman of the HKBCF and a 10-year survivor, said, “The moment an individual is diagnosed with breast cancer she becomes a breast cancer survivor and embarks on the new, long and tortuous life journey wrought with tremendous fear of relapse.

Support Service is unique with peers “mentoring those newly diagnosed with breast cancer and the facilitation of sharing and guidance by fellow survivors and their family members and professional caretakers in the pursuit of holistic wellbeing. So far, nearly 2,500 survivors have benefitted from this service, she said.

The Breast Health Centre has screened over 10,298 people in Hong Kong for breast cancer since May 2011, including 4,376 low-income women who received the service for free.

Mary Hemrajani, Vice-Chairman of the HKBCF and a 7-year survivor, said that the “Sunflower Group, a program organizes by the HKBCF, provides a platform for breast cancer survivors to communicate, share information and empowers them through peer encourages.