Over 5,500 women from all over the country took advantage of free ultrasound examinations for breast cancer, thanks to AVON’s ‘From Love to Life’ campaign, whose coordinator is the Bulgarian Fund for Women. This is what the statistics show from seven district cities in the period of two years.
The initiative was brought to life by virtue of the profits made from selling resources given as charity in 2013.
In the beginning of 2015 the organizers went to “One of 8” fund with whom they jointly created a program called “Be by my side” and they started their work towards helping and supporting women diagnosed with breast cancer. Screenings have at this point ceased in the cities of Varna, Rousse, Shumen and Bourgas.
The prime observation of the specialists is that fear is the main reason women miss their regular screening tests. Disadvantaged women are the ones who are most likely to do it, therefore the campaign is taking special care of them by offering priority appointments – women with many children, long-term unemployed women registered in the Unemployment Bureau, and disabled women make up only 23,6% of those who have had a screening. It is disturbing that only 26,5% of the patients were diagnosed with “no signs”. The rest 74,5% showed different kinds of benign formations, cysts, or they have been sent to another doctor for a second opinion.
According to the analysis of the local non-governmental organizations, who gave a hand at the venues and put in extra efforts to reach and personally invite the women from the priority groups, the most interested in screenings are women of ethnic origin (36% of all of the targeted groups), and only 8% are disabled women and 13% – women with many children.
Screenings continue in Stara Zagora and Pleven, and there are going to be 600 more consultations at the renewal of the campaign in Plovdiv in September.
Fund raising is all year round. All the profits of every product sold in 2015 would provide psychological and legal consultations and support groups for women with breast cancer and their families.
