Jainab (third right) receives a souvenir from Pang at the opening of the symposium yesterday. Also in photo are Devanand (second right), Yong (right) and Ibrahim (left).
KOTA KINABALU: There is a real need for at least nine radiotherapy machines for cancer patients in Sabah, said Minister of Community Development and Consumer Affairs Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid.
She said more than 50 per cent of the population and most sufferers of the cancer disease are women.
“Let’s say 300,000 population need at least one machine. In Sabah the population is 2.7 million, so we need at least nine machines but we only have one here in Kota Kinabalu,” she said during the opening of the Mini Symposium – Living Beyond Breast Cancer by the Kinabalu Pink Ribbon at Pacific Sutera here yesterday.
Jainab also said they could look into many ways to make things easy such as working together with non-governmental organisations, making petitions as well as doing some working papers to show how serious the situation is for cancer patients here.
“I urge the people not be afraid to check their health conditions to detect cancers at the early stage,” she said and added that if a person loves his or her family he or she must also love himself or herself.
Jainab said they would support the efforts of Kinabalu Pink Ribbon to help the breast cancer patients.
Meanwhile, Kinabalu Pink Ribbon president Lucilla Pang said during their visit to the Interior about six months ago, they observed that the cancer patients there were mostly young women from the interior areas.
“These cancer patients are from the interior part of Sabah and as we know Tawau or Sandakan does not have any oncologist centre, so for treatment they have to come to Kota Kinabalu,” she said.
Pang also said that there is only one radiotherapy machine in Sabah and for treatment of patients it must be done continuously not only for breast cancer patients but also for other cancer sufferers.
“We have collected signatures for our petition, we must gather 3,000 more signatures by end of this month in order to get one machine by the end of this year,” Pang added.
Immediate past president of Malaysian Oncologist Society, Dato’ Dr Mohd Ibrahim Wahid said most of the patients came late to do their check up.
In Kuala Lumpur up to 50 per cent were those when they came for their cancer check with their status at Stage 3 and Stage 4, he added.
“At that stage, their cancer is already at the worst and advanced stage. If their cancer can be detected early at stage one or two, many things can still be done and may not need to undergo any operations,” he explained, adding that, in Kuala Lumpur they have at least 20 machines.
“Even though one machine will cost about four to six million ringgit, this machine is one of the cheapest form of treatment for cancer patients, a machine can treat about 15 to 17 persons a day and one machine can last up to 15 years.
Also present at the symposium were Jenny Yapp, vice president of Kota Kinabalu Pink Ribbon; Datuk Dr Devanand, founder cum chairman of Pink Ribbon Wellness Foundation and Yong Lee Lee, co-founder cum chief executive officer of Pink Ribbon Wellness Foundation.