As the globe unites on February 4 to raise awareness and foster a shared commitment, the Nigerian Medical Students Association (NiMSA) joins the global community to celebrate World Cancer Day 2024.
With the 2024 World Cancer Day themed “Close the care gap”, the focus shifts towards ensuring that every individual, regardless of location or economic status, has equal access to quality cancer care.
A road walk awareness campaign was embarked on by Medical Students across the nation to commemorate the event.
Speaking on the initiative behind the walk by the Medical Students, the Technical Officer on Cancer awareness and advocacy, NiMSA, Ogaranya Peace Shalom, revealed that the movement stems from the passion to save lives.
“My passion is to save lives by creating awareness. This is my major inspiration because cancer is almost becoming a global pandemic and as a country whose traditions for medical aid are somewhat late, the risk of prevalence is higher as most patients would choose to seek help somewhere else before presenting at the hospital resulting in late diagnosis which worsens prognosis,” Ogaranya shared.
“In 2019 before the COVID era, we had a 17-year-old patient who was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Occiput. She was such a lovely girl and couldn’t afford treatment. I was so close to her and usually returned after wardrounds to check up on her, and paid some of her test bills but eventually, she died and most patients I got close to, died as well.
“I was devastated because it is interesting to know that I got to be the last person they speak to before taking their last breath,” Ogaranya added.
My dream of being a Neurosurgeon changed and I’m dedicated to ensuring that I do everything humanly possible to save the lives of cancer patients or at least, make their last days beautiful.
The Technical Officer explained that the purpose of the walk is to create proper awareness of the cancer disease as a prevention mechanism to encourage regular checkups for early detection rather than a last-minute treatment.
“Closing the Care gap, just as our theme for this year’s World Cancer Day says, we walk to close the gap instead of waiting until it is too late,” she stressed.
Miss Ogaranya further disclosed that a total number of 22 different Medical Students Associations took part in the World Cancer Day 2024 march.
In her final note, Miss Ogaranya explained that as Medical doctors-to-be, it is part of their obligation to give back to society. She also noted that the awareness campaign created sparks of interest amongst residents in the communities.
“After all, it’s our Hippocratic responsibility to save lives. It was very beneficial as we received a lot of reports from different regions about the increasing interest of the community in the knowledge of cancer. We will keep spreading awareness until we fight this ravaging Man-eating disease,” Ogaranya maintained.
