By Kelvin Obambon
Health advocates, medical professionals, and cancer care experts, on Saturday, rally in Calabar the Cross River State capital on Go Pink Day 2026 to sound the alarm on the growing burden of cancer, calling for urgent government intervention, subsidized treatments, and expanded access to radiotherapy facilities.
The event, organized by the Pink Africa Foundation in partnership with the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN) Cross River State Chapter and the Asi Ukpo Comprehensive Cancer Center, featured free screenings for breast, cervical, and prostate cancers, alongside eye checkups and blood drive.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s outreach, “Turn Up the Fight in Breast Cancer Care,” the Executive Director of Pink Africa Foundation, Glory Egrinya, stressed that awareness alone is no longer enough to curb the rising mortality rate.
“Breast cancer has become a problem because of late presentation. That means awareness is not enough,” Egrinya said. “We are not just creating awareness; we are turning up the fight in all the critical care gaps that are affecting our women, especially those in underserved communities.”
She appealed directly to the government to review healthcare policies and subsidize treatment costs, noting that many rural residents cannot even afford basic medical investigations, let alone chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
“We need the government to come in and support us to review this policy and also subsidize cancer treatment. A normal person cannot afford radiotherapy, cannot afford chemo,” she added. “We need more people to come on board, more oncologists, more machines, radiotherapy machines, so that these people will live.”
Providing medical insights, Dr. Funke Ebughe, President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria, Cross River State Chapter, detailed the primary risk factors and warning signs of the disease, noting that breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Nigeria.
“We have noticed that breast cancer is commonest in women. 99% of the cases of breast cancer are found in women, with only about 0.5 to 1.0% occurring in males,” Dr. Ebughe explained.
She categorized risk factors into non-modifiable elements – such as biological sex, advancing age, family history, and genetic predispositions like BRCA genes – and modifiable lifestyle factors, including weight, physical inactivity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and unprescribed contraceptives.
Dr. Ebughe also urged individuals to be vigilant about physical changes, warning against dismissing early red flags.
“Once you see the skin around your breast begin to change and you notice any dimpling looking like the back of an orange, you know that there’s cause for alarm. You need to run to get checked,” she stated. “Once you notice that a nipple that has always been inverted, begins to go in, you know you need to check. Once you feel lumps, you need to run to the clinic.”
Speaking in the same vein, Yegwa Ukpo, Executive Director of Asi Ukpo Comprehensive Cancer Center in Calabar, highlighted the heavy financial toll of the disease and the critical delay in patient presentation.
“In Nigeria, generally, where we have about 144,000 new cases every year, the majority of those cases are breast cancer cases,” Ukpo noted. He added that 70 to 80 percent of cancer cases present late due to insufficient testing and financial constraints.
“A lot of patients in Cross River are not able to afford treatment, so this is one thing that we always like to implore individuals and the government to see how they can support patients,” Ukpo said. He mentioned that the center is currently in talks with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to integrate cancer care into health insurance schemes to make treatments more affordable.
Dr. Constance Dien, one of the patients that came for the free screening, urged women to discard fear and ignorance.
“I encourage every woman not to feel that anything strange in their body is a death sentence. They should speak out to the right persons, to the medical personnel,” Dien advised. “Yes, prayer works, but the Bible says faith without work is nothing. So while you have the faith that God will heal you, please speak to the expert, medical expert, about any strange appearance or whatever that you see in your body.”
