Daily Times

Fifty-five-year-old Zartaj Gul, covered her face with a light Pashtun shawl and sits for a medical appointment in a private hospital of Peshawar.

Fear is visible in both her eyes and her face as she realises breast cancer is slowly killing her from the inside. Zartaj Gul hails from Khyber Pakhtunkwa’s Mardan and she is mother of five children. She says it all began when she started feeling pain in the left side of her chest but she ignored it. She thought it might be a normal pain due to the age factor. She says she takes normal pain killers for relief but with the passage of time, the pain moved to the back side of her chest as well. And then one day, she discovered a lump in her breast. At first, she was reluctant to tell her family and friends about it, thinking they might tell her she’s just being a phobiac. But as days passed, and she couldn’t take the pain any longer, she informed everyone about it.

Talking exclusively to Daily Times, Gul added that two of her family members had lost their lives owing to illnesses they never disclosed.

“The increasing pain disturbed me immensely and I told my family that I could feel my body change. I went to a local hospital, where the doctor advised me to visit Peshawar Hospital as my situation looked serious. A medical expert examined me and I was told that I had cancer for the last four months and would have to undergo surgery for that,” she said.

According to a report issued by national non-governmental organisation Pink Ribbon, Pakistan has the highest number of breast cancer patients from all of Asia. It is the most frequent malignancy to occur in women and accounts for 38.5 percent of all cancers in women. A staggering 90,000 new cases are reported every year and as many as 40,000 deaths. Nearly 43.7 percent of these cases are detected at advanced stages and could be prevented through timely intervention.

The public knows little about breast cancer in Pakistan. For many, it is a death sentence. However, with early diagnosis and suitable treatment, a patient’s chances of survival are higher than 90 percent.

According to statistics, in every eight women in Pakistan, one woman is suffering from breast cancer and annually 40,000 women have lost the race of life due to this disease. In KP, there is no proper data of women suffering from this chronic disease. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas do not even have any medical record regarding the disease. In the conservative Pashtun society, most breast cancer cases have not been registered owing to low awareness and cultural taboos.

The Institute of Radiotherapy & Nuclear Medicine (IRNUM) is the sole medical institution where treatment is provided to the patient suffering from breast cancer. According to IRNUM statistics, more than 700 new cases are registered every year across the province related to breast cancer.

Medical expert Dr Amjad who has been treating cancer patients, and who has worked with one of the most prestigious medical institutes in Peshawar, returned from London some years ago after specialising in this disease’s treatment.

Also talking exclusively to Daily Times, he added that unfortunately in Pakistan there is no awareness about breast cancer.

“Only in October, we lightly surfaced the issue but in foreign countries, this disease is given immense importance and awareness. For example, in foreign countries, the ratio of recovery after surgery is 95 percent but here, the ratio is 50 percent. This very clearly shows the difference. He added that two basic issues in this province and the adjacent tribal region are low awareness and not reporting the disease on time. In developed countries mostly, women face breast cancer after 60 years of age but in Pakistan, due to various factors, women face the disease even before turning 40 which is a threatening indicator for our country and we need proper mechanism to reduce the ratio of breast cancer,” he said.

Sixty-four-year-old Ilam Bibi hails from Charsadda and recently recovered from breast cancer. She explained how the disease was diagnosed when a sharp in the right side of her chest increased with the passage of time. After it became unbearable, her husband took her to Shaukat Khanum but the doctors refused to treat her, citing age-factor reasons. She expressed her relief and gratefulness on then being treated by an independent medical expert who helped her come out of this deadly disease.

Published in Daily Times, October 14^th 2018.