An iBreast Exam (iBE) device recently donated by a Malta-based NGO is enabling a charity in India to provide free breast cancer screening in remote villages in Wardha district where currently only six per cent of underprivileged Indian women know about breast cancer, and less still have access to screening. With 2,000 cases detected every day in India, this device is instrumental in saving lives.
Last May, the Grand Commandery of the Castello (GCC) launched a crowdfunding appeal among its membership as part of activities marking its 45th anniversary as the owner of Castello Lanzun in Mensija, San Ġwann.
Within two months, the jurisdiction – which forms part of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem established in AD1073 – collected £7,800, enough to purchase and donate the first iBE device, together with 2,000 cartridges, to Women In Need (WIN), a UK charity operating in Nagpur, India.
During a visit held this month, the jurisdiction’s Hospitaller Chev. Paul Warren visited two of the villages targeted by WIN where they have been carrying out scans with the iBreast Exam. “So far, the device has done over 1,000 scans,” said Warren, “with 36 cases referred for further examination. Of these, six cases of breast cancer were diagnosed.”
WIN founder Leah Pattison, together with her colleague Usha Patil, added: “We would like to thank the council and members of the Grand Commandery of the Castello for their donation for the purchase of the iBE device.”
Pattison and Patil have been dedicating their lives to alleviate the suffering of female lepers in that country for the past 20 years.
The GCC has been supporting WIN for the past eight years.
Its donations have gone towards a mobile primary health clinic in Nagpur’s urban slums; a small hospice for elderly leprosy patients at Dattapur; beds and equipment for abandoned women sheltered by WIN; an autorickshaw for the Hospice; the creation of a garden for abandoned women; as well as capital equipment such as computer, projector, screen, water filter and office furniture.
Pattison urged the public to support the GCC (VO/1558) so that this charity in Malta can further strengthen its mission to assist those afflicted by disease, neglect and abuse in Malta and to relieve the suffering of those with leprosy in India and Uganda.
For information about the GCC, visit the website below or e-mail Chancellor Confrere Alan Miller at chancellor@grandcommanderymalta.org.