HEALTH CAMP REPORT (9 January 2016)

Introduction:

Mammomobile was born to carry the message of hope for prevention, detection and treatment of cancer into the heart of the in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with mobile health and cancer screening. We did our ?rst health camp in White?eld, Bangalore, for the staff working as gardeners, house-keepers, construction workers and domestic help in “Wind Mills of Your Mind”

Awareness – Presentation/chat on Cervical and Breast cancer

To make the health camp complete, Mammomobile and Rotary inner circle joined hands so that the underprivileged women would have an opportunity for getting mammogram and Pap Smear done at the same time. Mammomobile hired Poorna Sudha mobile bus for getting the mammograms done. Rotary used Kalp foundation for doing the Pap Smear. All the organisations worked seamlessly to make the health camp successful.

The Preparation:

Once the date for the health camp was ?nalised. We coordinated with the:

• Poorna Sudha and Kalp foundation so that we understood their requirements for the health check

• Wind Mills Maintenance dept head for registering all the female staff

• All the residents for registering their domestic staff

• All supervisors of the staff to speak to the groups of the female staff to let them know about the camp in advance

• Wind Mills Maintenance team to make arrangements for the health camp day We received about 120 registrations for the health camp. Out of this about 77 were above 30, thereby applicable for Pap Smear and about 26 were alive 40, thereby eligible for Mammogram. The rest of the females were below 30 and they were only to attend the awareness session.

The Health Camp Day:

The programme was as follows:

• 10 AM – 10.30 AM : Registration of the female staff and handing over tokens for the check ups. A number of volunteers came forward to help with this process.

• 10.30 AM : Awareness on Cervical Cancer by Dr Geetha from Kalp Foundation ( working with Vydehi hospital) – Dr Geetha did most of the talking in Kannada and English, she also spoke in Hindi for the bene?t of some of the staff who were more comfortable in that language. Dr. Geetha explained in very simple manner without using any technical jargons thereby making it easy for getting her point across to all who were present.

• 11.00 AM : Awareness on Breast Cancer by Dr Gayathri ( Arranged by Poorna Sudha). She shared that the breast cancer cases are increasing alarmingly especially in the metros, however, it can be cured if detected early. She explained the self examination and encouraged the women to do this regularly.

The awareness programme was very informative and explained about the breast and cervical cancer in very simple terms. The women were encouraged to ask questions to clear any doubts.

This was followed by some refreshments ( Tea and Biscuits) for everyone, arranged by Wind Mills Community.

After this both the Pap Smear and mammogram check up process started in parallel. Since the numbers for Pap Smear were large, the doctors decided to do 2 Pap Smears in parallel. There was a lot of enthusiasm amongst the women who waited patiently for their turn to come.

About 24 women got their mammogram done and this was completed by about 2.30 PM. The Pap Smear took longer and got over by about 4 PM.

Conclusion:

We were expecting the mammography reports within two weeks. God forbid, if there are any doubtful or positive cases, further investigation or treatment will be taken care of in Vydehi hospital. It was the first health camp by Mammomobile and it was very heartening to see the overwhelming response. One of the housemaids told her employer “Ma’am where would I have the time and resources to get Mammogram done, after listening to the Doctors talk, I am so glad that I got an opportunity to get this done free.” It felt good to hear this.

A week later, we received the reports and we are glad that all the results were negative.

[contact-form-7 id=”73″ title=”Contact form 1″]