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By Prisca Sam-Duru

Recently, Lily Women’s Health, a non-governmental organisation based in Lagos, took its campaign against breast cancer to an encouraging level through the premiere of ‘Tufiakwa’: Witnessing the Breast Cancer Journey’, in Lagos.

The documentary, supported by the Lagos State Government through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to boost the cancer awareness campaign, premiered before a female-dominated audience at the Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos.“

Tufiakwa”, meaning God Forbid in Igbo language, interrogated the general fear and religious belief among people that faith in God only, immunes them from developing cancer.

Experts who spoke in the documentary as well as during its premiere, informed audience that breast cancer which is now the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer globally, is also a major cause of death in the female. They identified poverty, stigmatization and superstition due to multi-cultural diversity of Nigeria, as factors affecting acceptance of the existence of breast cancer in addition to the fact that it is on the increase.

The documentary is a witness to the breast cancer journey of two women who had been diagnosed with cancer but survived because of early and proper medical diagnosis and treatment. It featured some medical experts both within and outside the country who educated viewers on essentials covering prevention, early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

While one of the two women, presented quite early; reason she got healing within a year of diagnosis, the other woman, presented a bit late. The good news is that they’re both survivors. The two survivors of breast cancer therefore prove the empirical facts that breast cancer is not a death sentence. ‘Tufiakwa’ also presented religious leaders who advised women on the need to merge faith and medical approach to deal with cancer growth in their body before it is too late. They further debunked the belief that children of God cannot have cancer.

The greatest reason people do not want to go for a mammogram according to the Executive Producer of ‘Tufiakwa’ and founder of Lily Women’s Health, Dr Lilian Ebuoma, is fear. Dr Ebuoma added that people present late not out of fear whether the procedure is painful or not, but, fear that they are going to die.   Revealing startling statistics of the ravaging nature of the disease, Dr Ebuoma stated that “WHO declared this year, that breast cancer is the number one cancer now in the world. Every 74 seconds, a woman somewhere on the globe, dies from breast cancer. Every 19 seconds, a woman somewhere on the globe is told she has breast cancer. In Nigeria, at least two out of every four women diagnosed with cancer, could die from it within five years”. These, point to poor health facilities and lack of access to quality primary health care.

According to her, “Late detection and late treatment are rampant because of multiple factors such as cultural and poverty. Stunning statistics show far reaching consequences of breast cancer. New research now shows that for every death from breast cancer, in sub-Saharan Africa, there are two maternal orphans.

“Most of the times, they spend all the family money to treat their mother, run deeper into debt and financial responsibilities thereby increasing the cycle of poverty.

“This is not just about one woman, one neighbourhood one government or state, it’s about our nation”, she explained.

While identifying problems associated with late detection, Dr Ebuoma said that the documentary educates people on the truth about breast cancer in Nigeria. “We hope to come up with better solutions for saving lives. I look forward to today when cancer will have no effects on the human race.

“To wipe cancer out of human history, our surest weapon is early detection and early treatment. We achieve that through awareness which is the aim of ‘Tufiakwa’ and, creation of policies that promote the prevention of cancer”, she said.

She however posited that stigma and poor health-seeking behaviours, and fatalism attitude towards breast cancer; seeing cancer as a death sentence which is propagated through cultural attitudes and beliefs, are factors fuelling the increase in the number of deaths.

At the end of watching the documentary, Ebuoma hoped that no one would say, Tufiakwa, it’s not my portion which is a negative cultural coping strategy which forces denial and ultimately, untimely death, stressing that “A change in attitude should now be tufiakwa, God forbid that we allow the current status quo of breast cancer unchallenged in our country”.

With no commercial intent for the documentary, Dr Ebuoma hinted that the campaign against cancer will go round schools, markets and churches etc, while calling on other organisations to join in the war against the scourge.

Also speaking, the producer and director of the documentary, Adelaja Adebayo, who disclosed that the project took two years to complete, noted that his crew encountered the problem of secretiveness on the part of respondents adding that the multicultural nature of Nigeria affected the sensibility of people they wanted to interview as they were unwilling to share their stories for fear of stigmatization.