Oncology Health Care Givers Honoured

Speaking on Friday in Rondebosch, Cape Town, PinkDrive’€™s CEO Noelene Kotschan said that this year’€™s World Cancer Day was about thanking care givers for pulling together to address the issue of cancer.   ‘€œI am impressed by the Western Cape’€™s willingness to collaborate to fight this disease,’€ said Kotschan.

Pink ribbons, pink cup cakes and a pink cake were all part of the commemoration. Pink cards were placed on chairs with a message, ‘€œEarly detection saves lives’€. Several attendees wore pink in honour of the day.

Pink Drive runs two ‘€œPink’€ mobile breast check truck units.   The educational units travel to corporate and semi-urban areas around South Africa with the aim of enabling various disadvantaged communities to have accessible mammography education and potential screenings.

Chairperson of the Cape Town Health Portfolio Committee, Councilor James Vos said the city of Cape Town was proud to be associated with such an event.   ‘€œIt is not the duty of government alone to provide health care, it is everyone’€™s responsibility,’€ Vos said.   He re-iterated that health care belongs to the private sector, business, and the public sector and said that it is good to see the collaboration of PinkDrive with other stakeholders   pulling   together   to fight cancer.  

The message for the day was clear, ‘€œPrevention, early detection, treatment, care and a salute for care givers who have dedicated countless hours to people with cancer’€.   Vos said early detection of cancer is necessary to avoid pressure on the health system and the economy of the country.  

During her speech, Linda Greef, Director of People Living with Cancer in Cape Town, thanked all care givers in oncology departments around Cape Town and said that their dilemmas and that of their patients needed to be addressed. ‘€œWithout you cancer patients will be nothing,’€ she said.

Greef revealed that more than half (60%) of oncology health care providers were in the private sector, leaving the public sector oncology departments severely strained.

MEC for Health in the Western Cape, Theuns Botha, said government on its own could not curb the disease but that partnership with the private sector was necessary to fight cancer.   Botha said that the best health care system is the one which will reach people who will otherwise be unreachable.   ‘€œThe challenge is to create an opportunity for an equal chance to be healthy,’€ Botha said.

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