Cancer Awareness Week starts in Oman

Muscat: GCC Cancer Awareness Week has officially begun as organizations and individuals dedicate the next seven days to education and prevention.
The National Oncology Center (NOC) at the Royal Hospital (RH) in collaboration with the Oman Cancer Association (OCA) launched the second GCC Cancer Awareness Week.
“We will be working as a team and several activities will be carried out in malls, hotels, parks and hospitals, but our landmark event ‘Hug-a-bear’ will happen at the Oncology ward at the Royal Hospital, where we will be entertaining the children in the ward and boosting their morale for about two hours in the morning.
“Activities to observe the cancer week will take place across Oman, in Sur and NIzwa and other places; we congratulate our OCA branches that have worked very hard to spread the advocacy for cancer, and hospital across Oman who have taken a great initiative to come out and meet with the communities in many different ways.
“These are through advocacy talk, walkathon, self breast examination campaigns, the Mobile Mammography Unit (MMU) and many others. The hug a bear event is still the central program specific for children,” said Dr. Wahid Al Kharusi, Chairperson of OCA.
The events will be held in hospitals, malls, parks, hotels and playing fields. A special manual will be available for collection free of charge at some points of contact during the week on types of cancers and its causes and how to avoid cancer with proper nutrition, healthy lifestyle, no smoking and fight obesity.
The slogan for the GCC Cancer Awareness Week is '40 per cent protection; 40 per cent cure,' and aims at promoting a healthy diet and lifestyle. The slogan also raises awareness among the community on the significance of cancer early detection by identifying the main symptoms of the different cancer oncology diseases.
Campaign activities will be held from February 1 to 7, and aim to strengthen the relations between health cedars and the community to reduce the prevalence of cancer through awareness programs and activities. They also aim at activating programmes to fight cancer as a shared responsibility between government and non-governmental sectors.
Other activities will also be carried out at the Muscat Grand Mall, Royal Hospital, Oman Medical College, Higher College of Technology, Bushar Polyclinic, A’seeb Specialty Polyclinic, Al Qurm Park, and Sur hospital. OCA will also be observing the World Cancer Day on February 4, which falls in the same week.