Muscat: Oman Cancer Association said its 16th Annual Cancer Walkathon will be held at Qurum Nature Park on October 29 from 4 pm to 6.30 pm. A family event, the walkathon with the theme, ‘Together We Win’ is organised yearly to support cancer patients and their families. “This is our 16th annual walkathon event to spread awareness for all cancers. This is the culmination of the Annual Global October Pink Ribbon, a whole month of events dedicated to breast cancer awareness,” said Dr Wahid al Kharousi, Chairman of Oman Cancer Association.
“In Oman, for every 100 cases of breast cancer there are one to two cases of male breast cancer reported. These cases are looked into further with genetic testing because most of them have familial component. So it is a routine in our hospital,” said Dr Taha Mohsin al Lawati, Sr Consultant General Surgery & Surgical Oncologist as well as Head of Breast & Surgical Oncology Unit, Royal Hospital.
This year for the first time OCA’s branches will organise regional walkathons in Salalah, Al Dakhiliyah, Al Dhahirah and South Al Sharqiyah.
Last year more than 8, 400 people registered for the 3-km walk and OCA this year hopes to reach a target of 10,000 registrations. The registration fee is RO 3.5 that comes with a cancer awareness T-shirt in long and short sleeves; raffle draw coupons where as children registration also get a free entry coupon to the children corner for the first half an hour. The allocated places for registration are the OCA head office in Al Ghubra, commercial malls during the month of October as well as online.
For the whole month of October the association will be having awareness programmes at Muscat City Centre, Qurum City Centre, Oman Avenues Mall, Mall of Muscat and Muscat Grand Mall during the weekends offering awareness and educational materials, free breast examination and free mammograms for women over the age of 40 years. During October various awareness campaigns will be conducted in schools, colleges, universities, private and corporate institutions.
“This is a very important cause and we are more than happy to accept invitations to organise talks and campaigns. We want to hear more from the organisations,” said Dr Manal al Zedjali, Dean at the Higher Institute of Health Specialties, at the press conference.
“We would like to thank our patrons, our partners and sponsors without whom this event would not be possible. The association also wants to thank all the government bodies that granted us permission to hold this important annual event; the Malls for accommodating the Pink Ribbon Initiative; our volunteers for their important support; our staff of the Association; the registrants for their participation and their support indicating their care for their support for the cancer patients and their families,” said Dr Kharousi.
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