Pacific International Hospital (PIH) led another successful Globeathon walk today to end Women’s cancer in the country.
Now into its third year in PNG, the event saw the participation of various corporate bodies and individual residents of Port Moresby.
Globeathon to End Women’s Cancers is a worldwide movement to create public awareness about the global impact of gynecological cancers in women.
Port Moresby is one city among 180 other cities in 60 different countries globally, who walk the globeathon annually.
This year’s walk began from PIH, 3 Mile through to 4 Mile and back to the Hospital grounds.
Walkers held placards with catchy slogans, and changed them as they walked through the streets.
PNG Cancer Foundation Ambassador and wife of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Lynda Babao-O’Neill, encouraged women at the beginning of the walk to take time out from their busy schedules to take pap smear tests.
The Pap test is recommended for all women between the ages of 21 and 65 years old, and one of the most reliable and effective cervical screening tests available.
Babao also praised the turnout of men at the event, saying it reflected their increasingly active involvement in their mothers, wives, and daughters’ lives alike.
The movement seeks to create awareness on women’s cancers “below the belt”, as it is respectfully put, to help minimize the number of preventable deaths resulting from these cancers through early testing.
According to World Health Organisation International Agency for Research on Cancer, Gynecological cancer impacting women worldwide, account for 19 percent of the 5.1 million estimated new cancer cases each year.
Globeathon is the first international movement focused on the prevention and early detection all below the belt cancers, which include uterine, cervical, ovarian, vaginal, and vulva.
