By Abdul Burra
Bauchi State House of Assembly will partner with a nongovernmental organization Alheri YS Foundation in reducing and preventing cancer in Bauchi State.
Speaker Abubakar Y Suleiman disclosed this when he received members of the Foundation who paid him a courtesy visit in his office today.
He explained that cancer is one of the major diseases that kill people especially women in the State and the country at large, hence the need for a collaborative effort to curb it.
He assured the NGO that the legislative arm will collaborate with the executive arm to establish a breast cancer management agency unit in the state to curtail the deadly effects of the diseases.
While commending the NGO for their humanitarian services in the state, the Speaker pledged the Assembly’s readiness to collaborate with them towards enlightening the populace at the grassroots through media outreach on the signs and symptoms of breast cancer in order to create more awareness on early detection and the need for comprehensive diagnosis of the disease in the state to ensure lives are saved.
In their remarks, Chairman of the House Committee on Health Hon. Saleh Sarkin Jadori and a member of the Committee Hon Sale Hodi Jibir described the visit as timely stressing that early detection of cancer is key to saving lives.
Speaking earlier, the Executive Director of the Foundation Miss Alheri Yusuf said that the purpose of the visit is to intimate the Speaker on the activities of the Foundation and seek for areas of collaboration.
The Director told the Speaker that the Foundation is a non-governmental and nonprofit organization that aids in humanitarian services to individuals and communities in the state in the areas of education, health, women empowerment and child development.
According to her, the Foundation has engaged in the fight against cancer in it supported 14 children who are diagnosed with treatments band chemotherapy at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital.
She stated that cancer is a deadly malignant disease and is prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, stressing that people of the Northeast part of the country are struggling to cope with the increasing burden of cancer and other communicable and no communicable diseases.
Miss Alheri added that cancer is among the major diseases in Nigeria with over 100,000 new cases and 70, 000 deaths recorded annually.
She, therefore, appealed to the State Assembly to collaborate with the executive arm to establish breast cancer management agency unit and zonal diagnosis centres with haematology and pathology laboratories across the state for proper diagnosis which will help in addressing the causes of cancer by 80% in Bauchi state.
