Breast Health Awareness at the Reach To Recovery Training Workshop, Petaling Jaya – 2 August 2009
By Dr Evelyn Ho The Breast Cancer Welfare Association held a training workshop for volunteer breast cancer survivors in Malaysia, Reach to Recovery Training from 31 July to 2 August 2009. The training included essentials of Reach to Recovery, socio cultural issues, legislation on the rights of women, self image, sexuality coping strategies, basic interpersonal communication skills, tapping resources in the local community, providing psychosocial support for women with breast cancer, visiting the person with breast cancer, developing information material and patient’s kit, breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, psychosocial and psychosexual impact in breast cancer, setting up Reach to Recovery services, designing and sewing of breast prostheses, breaking the news, hospice services, palliative care, death and dying issues and a breast health/awareness and examination workshop.
Speakers included Ranjit Kaur, Ivy Josiah, the patient support team, Tammy Tam, the sewing team, Dr Patricia Gomez, Dr Ednin Hamzah and Dr Evelyn Ho.
The workshop equipped survivors and volunteers with the necessary basic skills and know-how to make them effective in helping others recover from their breast cancer, setting up a support and recovery service as well as being equipped with the necessary basic knowledge to spread breast health awareness as early detection is the key to surviving breast cancer.
Although the breast health workshop was held after lunch on the 3rd and final day of the training programme, all the delegates to the RTR Training Workshop plus facilitators/enablers for the workshop kept up with Dr Evelyn Ho, as she breezed through the various aspects of breast health from knowing the breast, effective breast self examination as well as what the participants needed to know about breast imaging. The participants then broke up into smaller groups to practise on the teaching breast models as well as practise self examination. All in all, the complaint was there was so much to cover and it was done at a very fast pace. However, all had managed to grasp the take home messages about the breasts, how they are unique to each individual, what the signs and symptoms of breast cancer are, as well as the fact that in being breast aware, they need to know the breast changes from their own “normal” breasts. Breast cancer does not always appear as a “lump” that they can feel.
Certificates were given out by Dr Evelyn Ho to all the participants of the RTR Training workshop at the end of the session. Chin Keat Yue finished the session with a round up of the few days’ training and getting volunteers to sign up for the public breast cancer awareness booths during the coming annual Pink October month.
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