Miriam Mutebi, Breast Surgical Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Still last week at the World Health Summit, something significant happened:
The launch of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Breast and Cervical Cancer Health Systems Strengthening.
A centre dedicated to building the very systems that women like Fiona deserve.
BUT who is Fiona?
I’ve written about Fiona and many other women just like her in my book Stuff Id Tell My Sister. She was 38 when she found a lump in her breast.
She did everything right. She paid attention and sought care. But the clinic was far. The cost was high. She was reassured, then delayed, then referred.
By the time she reached us, she had advanced disease. The ‘system’ had failed to carry her.
Her outcome had been defined and shaped by every gap along the way: between prevention and detection, between detection and treatment, between treatment and follow-up.
These are not isolated gaps. They are failures of connection. What makes such stories like these even harder to sit with is that we already know what works.
Women do not experience guidelines. They experience systems. And until those systems are built to follow women across their entire lives (not just at moments of crisis), there will be more Fionas.”
Other articles about WHO on OncoDaily.
