KIMS and Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation to show the power of PINK

Pink Ribbon Walk 2017, which has now become a benchmark SIGNATURE annual event in Hyderabad on Sunday 8 October at 6 30 a.m @ KBR Park.

Dr. P. Raghu Ram, Padma Shri awardee, CEO, Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation, Director, KIMS-USHALAKSHMI Centre for Breast Diseases & President, Association of Breast Surgeons of India, outlined the various innovative and unique initiatives being organized in October to create awareness for breast cancer. Tollywood actor, Tamannah Bhatia would be flagging off the NINTH edition of the benchmark walk on October 8th. 

Speaking on this occasion, Dr. B. BhaskarRao, MD & CEO of KIMS Hospitals announced FREE Breast Cancer Screening Programme for the Journalists and their immediate families during the month of October. This would be done at KIMS-USHALAKSHMI Centre for Breast Diseases using the state of the art South India’s FIRST full-field digital mammography system that has a proven track record of high accuracy at picking up very small impalpable cancers.

The aims of the Walk are to create awareness about importance of early detection of breast cancer, salute survivors and their families in their fight against breast cancer & most importantly to spread the message of Hope, Courage and Survival in the fight against breast cancer.

In an effort to demonstrate the power of PINK (a colour that represents breast cancer awareness & salute breast cancer survivors),Charminar, Buddha Statue, Ravindra Bharati, Legislative Assembly, Prasads Imax, GMR Airport, Synchrony Financial Ltd, KIMS Hospital & many other prominent buildings in the City will be illuminated in PINK for a record SEVENTH consecutive year on Saturday 7 October 2017 to mark the beginning of International Breast Cancer Awareness month. Hyderabad is the ONLY city in South Asia to have so many prominent buildings illuminated in PINK, year after year, to demonstrate forcefully, the power of the PINK RIBBON CAMPAIGN.

With nearly 90% of households in India having access to smartphones, and equally, with the launch of Prime Minister’s Digital India campaign, Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation has brought out the World’s FIRST mobile phone app on ‘ABC of Breast health’ in March 2017, which was launched by Shri Amitabh Bachchan, one of India’s icons. 

This App (android & iPhone version), which is free to download, provides information about every aspect of breast health (both breast cancer and benign breast disease) in 12 languages (English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya & Assamese) thus making people better informed and better prepared to make informed decisions. 

More than 10, 000 people have downloaded the App within one month of its launch, a record highest number of downloads for a health-related App in India.

In India, well over 150, 000 women are newly diagnosed with breast cancer every year; a staggering number that has overtaken cervical cancer to become the most common cancer affecting women. More than 60% present in advanced stages due to lack of awareness and absence of a population-based screening programme. Contrary to the western world where breast cancer is common after the age of 50 years, the highest incidence of breast cancer in India is between the ages of 30-50 years; at least a decades earlier! More than70, 000 women succumb to breast cancer every year - a woman dies of breast cancer every ten minutes in India.

Established in 2007, Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation (UBF) & KIMS-USHALAKSHMI Centre for Breast Diseases has completed TEN positively eventful years serving the Community in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. Through the consistent innovative & pioneering initiatives of the Foundation, Breast cancer is no longer a ‘closet issue’ in this region – it is a much commonly discussed topic, thus bringing about the much-needed awareness resulting in more lives being saved.