Health Education

Teacher suggests breast cancer awareness be included in curriculum

A teacher at the Graydon Sealy Secondary School wants breast cancer awareness to be included in the curriculum.

During a day of activities to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, internationally recognised as October, junior teacher Brian Parris made the suggestion as he said that it was important to sensitise children about the disease from a young age.

Noting that early detection was the key to survival and teenagers should be taught the symptoms of breast cancer and how to self-check, he said it was necessary to have awareness, educational and interactive programmes that students could participate in at school.

Speaking during the school’s Pink Day celebration, he said: “We just want to get the school involved in the breast cancer support that has been going on all month in October. So what we did . . . is that we did a little walk around the Garrison Savannah because most of our students weren’t able to go well to participate in the October 1 CIBC [Walk for the Cure]. So we gave them that opportunity to see what it’s like to actually join the cause and walk for the cure.

“After that, we assembled in the courtyard and then we had a little workshop where the senior students were sensitised to the preventative techniques and the risk factors to look for when looking at breast cancer,” he said.

Parris added that he would like breast cancer awareness workshops to be part of health and family life education (HFLE) classes.

“If all of us continue to do this, students would be doing this as a preventative measure from a very early age . . . . I think that this can eventually be something that they teach in HFLE, and even the sciences, because it is something not only for the girls but for the boys to be aware of,” the teacher said.

Deputy head girl at the Graydon Sealy Secondary School, Hailey Charles-Hurst said students learned best when they were having fun. She said fun exercises to bring awareness to breast cancer made young people more interested in finding out more about the condition.

Charles-Hurst said she learnt a lot from the sensitisation workshop, including the fact that you did not have to be middle-aged to develop cancer.
(SZB)