LAUTOKA Aspen Hospital diagnosed 86 women with breast cancer last year, averaging one and a half cases every week, says Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist Dr Nanise Sikiti.
Addressing the Fiji Women Lawyers Association and the Network of Women Professionals during their inaugural Pinktober event at the Sheraton Fiji Golf Resort and Spa on October 30, Dr Sikiti highlighted the stark reality of cancer nationwide.
Dr Sikiti emphasised that breast and cervical cancers remain the two most common cancers affecting Fijian women. Highlighting this year’s theme, ‘awareness into action’, she urged attendees to move beyond discussion and make time for regular screening.
“Fiji is a very small place, we are not even a million people, but we are so burdened with a lot of diseases,” she said.
“Breast and cervical cancer are the two commonest cancers for our Fijian women, we’ve lost a lot of them.”
Dr Sikiti stressed these figures reflected real lives touched by severe hardship.
“These are women that sit with me in the clinic, he women that I tell them their results, the family that I speak to, who struggles to know whether they can afford treatment or not.
“Cancer doesn’t care about your profession. It doesn’t care whether you’ve got children, because when it happens, it actually happens and it can turn your life upside down.”
Dr Sikiti said professional women often sacrificed their well-being while advancing their careers and supporting others.
“We’ve spent our whole life studying to be where we are, we’ve prioritised our time to work so hard.
“When along the way did we say that our health doesn’t even matter?”
