Advocate calls for more support mechanisms for sufferers

Advocate for cervical cancer awareness, Krystal-Penny Bowen, is calling on more to be done to implement much needed support frameworks for persons, in particular women, suffering from various cancers on the island.

Her call was made recently at the Garrison Savannah, during the conclusion of her initiative “63 Days of Cervical Cancer Awareness and HPV Prevention”, which saw her and other supporters walking through various areas around the island to bring attention to the often overlooked form of cancer which heavily impacts women.

While speaking to Barbados TODAY, Bowen said that even though much of the attention from authorities centers around raising the number of citizens who get tested for cancers and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), the support for persons who are found to be positive for the diseases is still lacking in many aspects, as many persons often develop depression or anxiety while going through their treatments.

“One of my concerns through the campaign is definitely trying to help women, especially those women who are in that state of ‘okay I have cervical cancer’, navigate the complicated roadmap to treatment… because yes you have cancer, but what stage are you at, what type of treatment you need, who are the doctors you need to talk to or who are the persons that you would need in your care team? I think that is something that really needs to be developed.

“Not just for women with cervical cancer, but cancer in general. It’s a very complicated space and a lot of confusion can happen for persons who are going through this,” she explained.

Bowen, who herself lost her mother in March this year to cervical cancer, repeated her pleas once again for women to take their health seriously and not to wait until it’s too late, but instead, go and get tested at their earliest opportunity.

“It is at the critical age when you are [in] your 30s, 40s, 50s, that you really still need to maintain that whole idea of going to the doctor to find out the condition of your cervix and so on, to make sure that you are not at risk for something like cervical cancer. I think that is something that we really have to push in Barbados, where we encourage our women to go and get themselves tested, just like how we are encouraging women to go and get their screening for breast cancer, we need to do the same thing for cervical cancer as well.”

Bowen further expressed her strong determination to continue in her drive to bring more awareness to the disease, and said further projects are being planned to assist persons who are suffering from the disease, or have family members who are. 

(SB)