We have received many queries and requests about help with assignments, talks and self breast examination classes. We present some of them. We hope you will find this helpful or will at least help you get on with your projects.

We would like to congratulate all of you for getting involved on this aspect of health and wish you success in your endeavours!

Please do let us know your progress and we would be happy to report on the events that you have held in relation to raising the awareness for good breast health habits! We regret that we cannot meet each person’s needs specifically as resources are not permitting. However, adding your experience to the data on this Breast Health Info Centre would be invaluable. We welcome your feedback and reports.
 

Saya amat berbangga dengan adanya laman web ini.  Saya lebih bersemangat untuk meneruskan usaha di dalam menyediakan kertas kerja saya untuk tujuan kesedaran kepada semua pekerja disyarikat saya.  Saya amat berharap mendapat maklumbalas daripada tuan, saya iringi dengan ucapan terima kasih.

RH 25 Ogos 2002

A Thank you for the interest and congratulations on your efforts in trying to get your company to recognize the need for women to get early detection services and treatment. You may use any information on the website on Breast Health for your paper, but please quote the source and credit www.radiologymalaysia.org/breasthealth. 

Kami di Radiology Malaysia, mengalu-alukan artikel daripada sesiapa yang berminat, ataupun mempunyai pengalaman ataupun hendak mengemukakan pendapat sahaja di laman kami.   

Dengan usaha saudari, berkemungkinan lebih wanita akan mula melangkah ke arah lebih bertanggungjawab mengenai kesihatan payudara sendiri. Kami tengah membuat penyiapan untuk Program Mammogram Bersubsidi, Anniversary Online Contest serta terus mengajar cara Pemeriksaan sendiri payudara yang efektif. Ini akan dilancarkan untuk bulan Oktober, iaitu Bulan Kesedaran Kanser Payudara Antarabangsa. 

Langkah pertama ialah memberitahu semua di syarikat anda bahawa kesihatan payudara adalah di tangan tiap orang. Ia tidak memerlukan duit tetapi boleh menolong mengesan kelainan di payudara pada peringkat yang lebih awal. Poster serta risalah boleh di "download" dan dicetak untuk papantanda syarikat anda, ataupun disebarkan kepada mereka yang tidak mempunyai kemudahan internet.

Kami akan memberitahu saudari aktiviti serta update ke laman web ini melalui newsletter. 

Berkemungkinan saudari ingin menyertai woksyop untuk melatih Pengajar Pemeriksaan Sendiri Payudara yang akan dianjurkan pada masa akan datang.   

Syabas and teruskan usaha saudari!

Editor/Pengarang
 

MI, 13 Aug 2002

A Please help yourself to the articles in the English and BM section on the Breast Health Info Centre. We are not specifically a "breast diseases" site though we have touched on other breast diseases especially in the BM section. We are a breast health/breast cancer awareness site. Do credit the website though as your source of information.

We are in the process of getting more articles in Bahasa Malaysia as we recognise there is a need and a demand for this. Good luck on your assignment. - Editor
 

Q What kind of response do you wish to get after you held this campaign? What problems have you faced before, during & after launched BREAST CANCER WELFARE ASSOCIATION? 

We are a group of college students. We are doing a project about breast cancer & we found that this website provides a very detailed information. But we still have two questions, can you please send me the answer? Thanks a lot. 

LF, 24 May 2002

A Education is a response that we cannot measure perfectly. If we have implanted some information in you, it may not germinate until later. We do not believe that ignorance is bliss and therefore, arming the public with information on breast cancer will hopefully remove the fear and mystery surrounding breast cancer. If we do not do anything, the myths and barriers to early detection will never be overcome. Last year’s campaign was a start and hopefully the impetus for more efforts to come, as already evidenced in the 2002 Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign. This year 2002, the NCWO has been able to mobilize more resources to actually go out to the grass roots to educate women and men in the rural areas in 6 states. 

It may take many more campaigns and a few more generations before everyone is more educated about health matters and less easily taken in by spectacular claims, miracle cures etc. However, in last year’s campaign, since there was a subsidized mammogram campaign as well, we were able to some extent to ‘measure” the response from our data collected.

The campaign was a success because we had the help of the media to educate the general public. During the radio talk shows, we had listeners calling in with questions both from males as well as females! This was partly proven by the tremendous response of women to the subsidized mammogram campaign. Read all about this in www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\BCAC\2001Reports\submammoreport.htm

To understand the type of response intended, one must first know the AIMS of the campaign. 

I quote from my report in www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\BCAC\2001Reports\index.htm

Aim of the Campaign
The theme of the campaign was - Early Detection Saves Lives. Our aim was to increase the awareness of breast cancer, not only in women but also amongst men. In addition to the message of self breast examination, the role of early detection services was included. Myths and barriers to mammography were addressed. To encourage people to come forward for the mammogram, in the appropriately aged and high-risk groups, the price of mammograms with all additional views and ultrasound where indicated, was slashed to about 25-30% of the usual cost. - Editor

Breast Cancer Welfare Association
Problems faced by the BCWA may be due to the fact that the tradition of survivors (former patients) giving emotional support to newly diagnosed patients and mutual support among survivors of any condition has not yet been established (formalised) in Malaysia. It is a very new area. However, informal mutual support has always been in existence.

Problems faced before launch:
Recruiting members especially breast cancer survivors as the condition is considered to a social stigma

During and after launch:
Lack of support from the public as breast cancer survivors are viewed in a negative manner as they are mistakenly considered as terminal cases.
Insufficient support from some medical professionals and service providers. Referrals from private hospitals are not particularly forthcoming
Sustaining the interest and commitment of volunteers in the activities of the association

Ranjit Kaur
Chairperson, Organising Committee
1^st Asia Pacific Reach to Recovery International Breast Cancer Support Conference
Committee Member, Breast Cancer Welfare Association

Q I am a student at Kolej Damansara Utama conducting an assignment. It is stated in this web page that the breast cancer campaign was done widely through the media, so I was wondering where and how I can get the media releases such as campaigns or ads in the newspapers/magazines, or TV or radio ads/interviews that were conducted before. This would really be of great help if you could provide me the above sources and information for both year 2001 and 2002.

PL, 30 March 2002

Q I am truly very pleased that a web site such as this has been set up. I am a 2nd year mass communication student in USM. I will be conducting a campaign on breast cancer for my final year project.

GM, 18 November 2001

Q I'm writing from International Graduate Studies (IGS). I'm interested to organize a campaign or a talk about the breast cancer among college students and residents around Cheras and Hulu Langat area. Please give me some advice. Thank you.

DMH, 21 March 2002

 

A There is information on various aspects of the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign held last year as well as the reports and pictures in the News and Events section at www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\BCAC\2001Reports\index.htm

We hope that this will provide a basis upon which you can pattern your own campaign or projects. There are also resources in the Downloads section of the Breast Health Info Centre at www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\downloads.htm

Where in doubt, do write in to check that it is “ok” to freely print and distribute any aspect of articles or resources on this website. You are encouraged to download and print the SBE leaflets, posters and distribute them freely. 

Other information will be available in the Media Centre, www.radiologymalaysia.org\Media\index.html  (Please see reply to Question- Request for statistics). We regret that we are unable to post the newspaper and magazine cuttings as these are copyright by the various newspapers and magazines. The women’s magazines, Female, Cleo and Her World as well as Wanita had articles related to the breast in the months of October/November 2001.

There were features on Nona, Moving On, RTM News, TV3 and NTV7 news. In addition, there were morning chat shows such as Malaysia Hari Ini as well as Selamat Pagi Malaysia on TV. Radio stations helping out in the awareness campaigns were WowFM, Radio 4 and Radio 1. We were unable to supply personnel conversant in Tamil and Chinese for radio shows in Tamil or Chinese. Special permission will have to be obtained from the various TV stations if you wish to review their programmes.

As for conducting talks, it would be ideal, if you get in touch with some breast surgeons or radiologists who are active in breast imaging and who may be working closer to the area in which you intend to hold your talk/campaign. Once you have your plans firmed up, we can help you to get in touch with the relevant people.

Do not forget, there are free SBE workshops in certain regions of the country. Information is available at www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\workshops.htm. Please do make use of this opportunity as this is the first time that such a concerted effort to hold such programmes throughout the WHOLE year has been embarked upon. Your participation may help to provide the impetus and justification for such programmes to be held on a more sustained basis, year after year. 

Editor

Q I'm a postgraduate student (statistics) from UKM. I need some information about breast cancer statistics in Malaysia. Hope you can help me. Thank you.

Saha, 25 January 2002

A The statistics you need is available in the Breast Health Information Centre. Please see all the articles on About Breast Cancer, especially the article “Breast cancer - A serious problem?” www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\About\index.htm  

Dato' Chua Jui Meng's Speech on the Launch day of the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign 2001 on 4 October 2001 is downloadable in PDF format in the Media section of the website.  His speech contains information from the Penang Cancer Registry as well as Ministry of Health statistics on their studies. www.radiologymalaysia.org\Media\index.html 

Statistics in Malaysia is inadequate as we do not have proper cancer registries and our death certification is incomplete and non existent in the majority of the cases. That confounds our data collection. 

We are pleased to announce that the National Cancer Registry has been established. Read more about it at: www.radiologymalaysia.org\Content\MedPro\ncr.html 

Editor’s note: This reply was given on 25 January 2002. It has been updated here to include the latest information on the National Cancer Registry

Q Saya ingin tahu samada Organisasi ini boleh memberi taklimat atau demonstrasi mengenai SBE di pejabat saya memandangkan masalah kanser payudara telah menular di pejabat saya. Sekiranya Organisasi ini boleh memberi taklimat dan demo, boleh menghubungi saya untuk mengatur program ini. Terima Kasih

ZA, 10 April 2002

A We thank you for your enquiry. We recommend that you encourage your colleagues, staff to try to join the many "free" workshops available in the Klang Valley first. You can find a schedule in the following webpage: www.radiologymalaysia.org\breasthealth\Workshops\klangvalley.htm 

If you have an inhouse "nurse" or doctor, we may be able to offer training to health care providers within your Jabatan. This way, it will then, be possible for ongoing training for the future as each group for learning Pemeriksaan Sendiri Payudara (PSP) has to be small to be effective. 

It would be more productive to teach some staff in perhaps, Human Resource (if there is no in house "health nurse") to be able to train others in your Jabatan for PSP. PSP should be encouraged all the time, from year to year. Therefore, it is most effective to teach some HR or in house health nurses to teach others SBE regularly. 

Editor – With the current resources, we regret that we are unable to give personal services to each organisation as in some cases, thousands of women may be involved. However, it will make greater sense to train key personnel in each organisation so that they can continue to teach all the staff in groups for Self breast examination. We are looking into this possibility as more than one organisation has contacted us (NCWO/College of Radiology) with this request.
 

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Website Links

“CancerStory.com is a self-funded, non-profit site set up in memory of its founder's beloved mother who was taken away from the joys of life by cancer. She battled with colon cancer for three years and eight months. Through this web site, the founder hopes to share her late mother's cancer experience and help cancer patients and their families face the overwhelming tasks of seeking the best treatment, gathering information and preparing for the battle against cancer.”

Click Here to visit

Many thanks Kamal for submitting this link - Editor

“The National Cancer Centre Singapore – Inspired by Hope, Committed to Care: This website seeks to answer some of the common questions which you may have when you or your relative has been diagnosed to have cancer. It hopes to explain, in simple terms, what cancer is, what treatment is available for cancer, what are the causes of cancer, and information on the more common types of cancer, i.e. lung, colorectal and breast cancer.“

Click Here to visit

Thanks Margaret Ho for submitting this link - Editor
 

Perak Palliative Care Society

Our reader CYC of the PPCS, wrote about how Radiology Malaysia, in particular the Breast Health Info Centre might aid in the noble deed of caring for the terminally ill. In return, we asked for more information on the PPCS and this is what CYC shared with us. Thanks CYC for your contribution!

Click Here for more information.