Cancer awareness

Cancer awareness

By Dr Khalid Al-Saleh

Kuwait, Gulf countries and the Arab world celebrated an outstanding week at the start of November, a week of awareness of cancers which started at the Gulf Cooperation Council level and expanded to become an Arab week for the promotion of awareness against cancer.

Gulf and Arab private societies succeeded in promoting awareness programs in Gulf and Arab societies, and the result is an increase in society’s awareness towards three issues – the first is the reduction of fear from the word “cancer”, the fear that kept patients, especially women, if they discovered a growth, from seeking medical advice, and which caused them to reach stages where recovery rates become very low. That was in the past, and today the opposite is correct, because most patients come for treatment in early stages and hope for them increases for the future.

Secondly, awareness contributed to spreading knowledge of the risk factors related to cancer, so people become aware of the dangers of obesity, smoking and viral conditions related to cancer. The truth is that awareness of risk factors needs support with laws, which are in the hands of legislators in our countries, and maybe this is the reason behind the