Bristow Helicopter, Sebeccly support breast cancer care

Mayowa Babatunde, Coordinator, Bristow Uplift, told journalists in Lagos at a briefing that the intervention is Bristow’s modest efforts to help patients who cannot afford the very expensive breast cancer treatment.Bristow is supporting Sebeccly with funds to help care for breast cancer patients.Experts say the treatment costs from N1 million to as high as N15 […]

Mayowa Babatunde, Coordinator, Bristow Uplift, told journalists in Lagos at a briefing that the intervention is Bristow’s modest efforts to help patients who cannot afford the very expensive breast cancer treatment.
Bristow is supporting Sebeccly with funds to help care for breast cancer patients.
Experts say the treatment costs from N1 million to as high as N15 million or more.
October is Breast Cancer awareness month and Mr. Babatunde  said the support is Bristow’s “modest contribution to boost awareness around breast cancer and try to reduce the mortality rate through the effort.
It’s a small intervention but we hope this will go a long way to spur other companies in Nigeria to join the campaign,” he said.
He explained that Sebeccly currently has 14 female patients on their waiting list receiving various stages of treatment in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and the funds will support the effort.
He also said, “Through this fund Sebeccly will provide mastectomy for 50 women at the General Hospital Lagos. In addition, we will conduct advocacy campaign in 20 schools in Lagos environment. The Lagos State government has discounted the cost of mastectomy to about 40 percent,” he noted.
Dr. Lola Salako, Founder, Sebeccly Cancer Care and Support Center, said that the incidences of breast cancer is on the rise and so is the mortality rate.
“The essence of the partnership is to help those patients survive. Through this partnership, a lot of patients on our waiting list will be attended to and we will do a lot of awareness. More importantly, our support group that provides psychosocial support will be able to reach more cancer patients,” she said.
She noted that “one of the barriers of surviving breast cancer is high cost of accessing cancer care. This is one reason why people are not surviving the diseases. Some have access to care but they are not able to complete on time. We also work with government hospitals that provide cancer care. In LUTH, we have a retainership where patients get assistance.”