Highlighting The Importance Of Support For Cancer Patients, Shahnaz Haque: It's A Long Journey

JAKARTA - Support for breast cancer fighters is indispensable because they can lose confidence after their female 'identity' was forced to be appointed to prevent cancer from spreading. As an Ovarium Cancer Care Ambassador Shahnaz Haque highlighted the importance of support from family and peer communities to encourage and motivate cancer sufferers, especially breast cancer.

"Because for example there is one person who is diagnosed with cancer, who is affected not only by him, but also by one family," Shahnaz said as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, October 28.

Cancer diagnosis is not only a matter of the physical condition of the sufferer, but also certainly has an impact on the financial aspect, inter-personal relationship, communication, and mental health for cancer fighters and their families.

Kanker itu perjalanan panjang, bukan perjalanan sebulan atau bulan dua saja, ujar Shahnaz yang pada 1998 sempat dicandaksi cancer ovarian itu.

In addition to family support, he also highlighted the importance of the role of the fighter and cancer survivor and the cancer community to provide assistance and encourage cancer fighters who certainly need advice and motivation.

One of the community roles and cancer survivors is to motivate cancer sufferers to continue to have enthusiasm and advise their assistants (caregiver) to do their job well.

"Moreover, cancer fighters usually trust their fellow cancer survivors more than doctors because they have passed the road, so they are definitely more trusted than those who only treat," Shahnaz said.

"The community can also complete the role of assistants who come from family or friends, both sufferers when they are tired because the role they play can drain emotions," he said.

Globocan data in 2020 shows that the number of new breast cancer cases reached 65,858 cases or 16.6 percent of the total 396,914 new cancer cases in Indonesia, and the number of deaths from cancer in 2020 reached more than 22 thousand people.

Meanwhile, to raise awareness of breast cancer, the world community commemorates October as the Month of Breast Cancer Care.