POLOKWANE – Review spoke to General Practitioner and Aesthetic Doctor, Ellen Moila, to find out about the importance of a complete lifestyle change once someone is diagnosed, to help lower the rate of the cancer from growing and spreading.
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“Symptoms of breast cancer are and can easily be overlooked by patients, which is why we always urge women to go for regular breast examinations to check for abnormal breast lumps in the breasts as well as adhere to healthy active lifestyles. Another thing, most women ignore any signs of abnormal lumps in their breast out of fear of loosing their breast, but it’s safer to get rid of the problem, irrespective of the final outcome, than to loose a life to this silent disease,” she explained.
Dr Moila is passionate about women’s health in general and says that women need to make an extra effort to look after themselves. “Adhering to active lifestyle changes such as exercising, eating properly or taking nutritional supplements to boost their immune system can help significantly. The disease has been studied for years by doctors and thus enough research has been gathered about it which will assist to fight it. Limiting alcohol intake is also important,” she added.
She urges as well advises the community to have an open mind towards breast cancer patients and survivors as they have fought the killer disease and therefore must be celebrated and acknowledged by offering them support, love and care. “Some women who are diagnosed with breast cancer unfortunately do not make it and this is why it is important to celebrate as well as acknowledge those who defeat it so that it may urge other cancer survivors to be strong and know that it is possible to beat cancer and still manage to lead a healthy normal life,” she concluded.
Dr Moila wants to challenge women and men in the city to fight bright cancer like a girl by taking part in her #FightCancerLikeAGirl campaign.
The aim is to snap a photo looking ready to fight, in boxing gloves and share it on social media with the above hashtag to help create awareness around breast cancer.
“This campaign is also aimed at acknowledging as well as honouring those fighting the silent killer disease and not forgetting remembering and celebrating lives lost to breast cancer,” she concluded.
