Men have been urged to take central role in ensuring their wives’ freedom from breast cancer by among others, assisting in early detection diagnosis exercises.

The call was made recently by Jones Masiye, Acting Head of Non-Communicable Diseases in the Ministry of Health, who was speaking at Chezi trading centre in T.A Nkukula in Dowa district.

He said this during early cancer detection campaigns by Think Pink Malawi, an initiative on a crusade to achieve the lowest number of breast and cervical cancer deaths by advocating for early detection and diagnosis.

In his speech, Jones said; “Men, these women are our wives and we need to love them other than fearing or being shy with them; play around with her breast and try to detect any bean seed like lumps in them which could be a cancer in its early and treatable stage.”

He further disclosed that breast and cervical cancers were among the leading killer diseases to women, with Malawi ranking first in cervical cancer deaths in the Sub-Saharan region and that it would be unfair for the women to be left alone in the fight.

Think Pink Malawi kick-started in 2014 by former Miss Malawi and breast cancer survivor, Blandina Khondowe who got inspired by the agonizing pain she went through during her breast cancer treatment which saw her lose her breast.

“My major concern is that rural woman cannot afford to go abroad for treatment, a process she can easily avoid when the cancer has been detected in its early stages,” explains Khondowe who has also been joined by five more breast and cervical cancer survivors who give testimony of survival and positive life after cancer.

Over 521 women have since gone through the early tests with those detected supported through the early treatment process.