BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital launches women's cancer care center

Bangalore: BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital launches women's cancer care center – an all-inclusive women led center to provide absolute cancer care for women. Along with the launch, the hospital hosted a cyclothon in the city –Pink Ride, to drive awareness on breast cancer.

The center launch and the event were inaugurated by the esteemed guest on Saturday, including Sunetra Pandit, Cine Artist and dubbing artist, Nayana Sooda a renowned Theatre Artist, Jayashree Raj, Cine Artist and Producer and Rohith Nagesh a Cine Artist and President of Rotary Banashankari.

The hospital collaborated with ImpactGuru.com, a healthcare financing platform to make this an impactful event. The rally was flagged off at 7 AM covering in and around R.R Nagar and was culminated at BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital in Kengeri. This year the hospital staff brought together 400 plus participants including the BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital team, cancer survivors, cycling group, bikers and people from the nearby premises came together to support the cause. Amongst them, we saw participation from the Rotary Club of Banashankari and Rideaddicts.

The objective behind the event was to spread awareness about the diseases and create a platform for women to provide safe cancer screening facility. According to the recent ICMR report, Breast cancer is the number one cancer among Indian women and witnessed 1.5 lakh new breast cancer cases in 2018. It has been observed that one out of two women with Breast cancer die within the next 5 years which is caused due to the delay in diagnosis.

Dr Monika Pansari, Senior Surgical Oncologist, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital said "Breast cancer is becoming a raising concern among women. One out of 8 women is likely to have invasive breast cancer in the course of their life. However, early detection of breast cancer increases survival rates by 95 percent."

"Women in urban population usually get diagnosed in early stages as compared to women in rural population as they get detected in the advanced stage due to lack of awareness."

The event was chaired by Dr Monika Pansari (Surgical Oncologist), Dr Mathangi (Radiation Oncologist)and Dr Rajeev (Medical Oncologist)organized with the support of the oncology team and the other surgical team with an aim to make both men and women understand the severity of the diseases. In India, women feel uncomfortable talking or discussing about their illness and symptoms with their families and doctors. Hence, decided to launch a Women's Cancer Care Center – an all-inclusive women led team, giving women a comfortable space to undergo treatment for all types of cancer. The team ran a month-long free breast examination for all women, along with the tips and techniques to self-examine the disease.

Sandeep Kumar, CEO, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital said, "It is hard to pinpoint the cause of the disease, however there are a few risk factors including sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption, obesity among youngsters and poor dietary intake."

"It is believed that the mortality rate due to Breast cancer in India spiked due to lack of awareness, late diagnosis and lack of screening programmes."

Doctors at BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital attribute the spike in Breast cancer cases to poor lifestyle. Some of the additional prominent risk factors include, not having children, late marriages and avoiding breast feeding. They have also observed a rise in cases among younger women in their 30s.

Khushboo Jain, Co-Founder and COO, ImpactGuru.com said "For thousands of cancer patients in India, online crowdfunding has proven to be the most effective way to raise funds for their treatment. Breast cancer crowdfunding campaigns are amongst the highest raised fundraisers on ImpactGuru.com."

"Cancer crowdfunding can help women receive timely treatment and save lives. As we work towards making an extraordinary impact through our healthcare financing platform, we're pleased to associate with BGS Gleneagles Global Hospital, in their initiative to raise awareness about breast cancer and celebrate women cancer survivors."

This year the hospital staff felicitated a few breast cancer survivors, who became an advocate in spreading awareness regarding Breast cancer and how right medical intervention helped them save their life. They all encouraged early detection and positive attitude the best way to fight against the disease.