PINK OCTOBER 2002 Roundup
 

Pink October Activities - 2002

The College of Radiology, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia collaborated with various organisations to help bring Breast Cancer (Health) Awareness to the forefront in October 2002, the International Breast Cancer Awareness month. Our enormously popular Subsidised Mammogram Programme (SMP) was in great demand for the month of October, once again made possible with the MMA Foundation Radiology Fund and generous sponsors. This year, the hotlines were decentralized so that each volunteer mammogram provider had to handle phone calls and the online registrations proved to be hassle free relative to having to ring a busy phoneline or be put on hold!

Pink October used in our context denotes action by individuals to ensure their breasts are in the “pink” of health, thus focusing on the positive aspects of awareness message.

This year the SMP2002 reached 7 states – Sabah, Kelantan, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Federal Territory and Malacca. This was made possible with 12 volunteer mammogram providers. Nearly 2000 women benefited from SMP2002. Thank you to all the volunteer centres and volunteer staff that made the value added mammogram programme another success! Syabas! Congratulations too, to the women who decided it was time to take that extra step to be pro-active about their breast health.
 

Pink October Online Quiz 2002

Again, we are delighted to thank Microsoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur, Abex Medical System Sdn Bhd and Abbott Laboratories Sdn Bhd for continuing to support our efforts to raise awareness on breast health as well as to help promote this community oriented website to the public. New sponsors for this year are Meditel Electronics, which is offering one of the 2 Grand Prize packages. Osim Malaysia, Secumedi & Philips Medical Systems are the other prize sponsors.

Quiz Winners even appeared on TV3’s Malaysia Hari Ini on 19 November 2002 as part of the Prize Presentation and “publicity” events for breast health awareness. Read more about it by clicking here
 

Working together - Sharing of resources – SMART Partnerships – Coalitions!

Last year Johnson and Johnson (RM100,000 donation) as well as Meditel Electronics (RM30,000 donation) contributed generously to the MMA Foundation Radiology Fund and allowed the SMP 2001 to reach 1526 women.

Printed pamphlets and other materials for the MMA Foundation Radiology Fund and College of Radiology Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign 2001 continue to be used (after reprinting) with updates this year in the NCWO BCAC 2002 campaign as well as the College’s Pink October activities. Posters by the College of Radiology, posters by Johnson and Johnson, Breast care recorders and Door knob hangers as reminders for self breast examination will prevail again. The Breast Cancer Welfare Association (BCWA) has also collaborated with the sharing of their Self Breast Examination Pamphlets in various languages as well as assisting in some workshops organized by the NCWO and other parties. These items including the refrigerator magnet of the NCWO BCAC 2002 campaign will be sent to each of the Subsidised Mammogram Providers in Malaysia! 

The NCWO and Johnson & Johnson has purchased Teaching Breast Models for use in the self breast examination (SBE) workshops. This is to enhance and allow hands-on practice for the participants of the SBE workshops. A teaching set has been donated to the BCWA for their community outreach SBE programmes. SBE workshops are held with the help of all or some of the organisations mentioned thus far. 

The NCWO has been particularly effective in reaching the grassroots because they have many affiliated women’s organisations while Johnson & Johnson has continued their assistance and support in the educational aspects of breast health. 

The College supports all efforts to form the National Breast Cancer Coalition (initiated by the BCWA) and the National Cancer Coalition (spearheaded by the National Cancer Society of Malaysia) and hopes to be able to use IT to breakdown physical boundaries that may hamper the formation of such coalitions. 

As resources are limited and not all states as well as health centers were included in the NCWO BCAC 2002, the NCWO and the College of Radiology decided to call upon the good will of the private centers in Malaysia to hold breast health awareness programmes through talks, forums, SBE workshops or counseling and currently to hold special breast health packages to coincide with Pink October.  The Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia is supporting the appeal from the College to the private hospitals for Pink October. 
 

The College collaborates with Anakku Holdings Sdn Bhd

Bookmarks raising Breast Cancer(Health) Awareness & helping to publicise the Radiology Malaysia website were designed by Anakku and were available in their Anakku Boutiques nationwide. We are grateful for their contribution and these bookmarks were also made available in all the Subsidised Mammogram Providers in Malaysia. Anakku has been supporting breast health activities since 2000.
 

What would an Awareness Campaign or Drive be without Media Involvement?

We are always grateful to the media for rallying to the cause – in a way the media is also part of the “team” when it comes to responsible reporting and bringing the Breast Health messages to the public in several languages. 

This year, again with Link Communications expertise and the strong support from Meditel Electronics we are able to get the media’s cooperation. With sponsorship from Meditel Electronics, this year, TV sound slides will be possible as well as newspaper advertisements.
 

Radiology Malaysia website operational costs

The College of Radiology set up a simple and humble website with its own funds and still continues to fund a major portion of the running costs. Right at the start, the College had decided that this would be an important tool for providing community education on radiology, clinical oncology and allied fields. In addition, it identified breast health as a “special community project”. 

We would like to thank Meditel Electronics (an associate company of Siemens) and Agfa Asean for helping us defray the running costs of the Radiology Malaysia website for the second year running. The Ministry of Women and Family Development through the NCWO is supporting our Breast Health Info Centre subweb for 2002.  Without all this aid, the College of Radiology would not be able to keep growing and improving the website.

Thank you all again!
 

To enable the College to continue to plan awareness programmes and hold the Subsidised Mammogram Programme, funds are needed. Please donate generously to the MMA Foundation Radiology Fund. This is a tax-exempt donation.
 

Our special thanks to the following individuals for their initiative, hard work (often, beyond the call of duty), support and help in various ways. This is a random listing and there is no special order of importance - YOU are all invaluable!

The College collaborates with Anakku Holdings Sdn Bhd