United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana Limited last weekend held its 9th ‘Jogging to Bond’ exercise for staff of the bank. The event was used to inform and educate Ghanaians about the alarming rate of prostate cancer in Ghana.
To this end, the pan African bank announced plans to support Soyuz Medical Imaging and Diagnostics Limited to organize free screening for prostate cancer across the country.
Oliver Alawuba, CEO/Managing Director of UBA Ghana Limited, who replaced Gabriel Edgal recently, said his outfit is noted for excellent service delivery, adding, “The Ghanaian staff of UBA are very fit to deliver service to their customers”.
He noted that UBA is poised to create more awareness about the disease and promised to deliver excellent customer service.
Addressing the UBA staff at Ghana International School (GIS) later, a medical doctor of the Soyuz Medical Imaging and Diagnostics Limited, Victor Dejoe said prostate cancer starts in the prostate, a walnut-sized gland found right below the bladder in men.
“If it is not treated, prostate cancer follows a natural course, starting as a tiny group of cancer cells that can grow into a full-blown tumor. In some men, prostate cancer that is not treated can spread and cause death,” he added.
He appealed to Ghanaians to change their lifestyles in order to reduce the incidence of the disease.
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize (spread) from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly the bones and lymph nodes. Prostate cancer may cause pain, difficulty in urinating, problems during sexual intercourse, or erectile dysfunction. Other symptoms can potentially develop during later stages of the disease.
Rates of detection of prostate cancers vary widely across the world, with South and East Asia detecting less frequently than in Europe, and especially the United States. Prostate cancer tends to develop in men over the age of fifty and although it is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in men, many never have symptoms, undergo no therapy, and eventually die of other causes. This is because cancer of the prostate is, in most cases, slow-growing, symptom-free, and since men with the condition are older they often die of causes unrelated to the prostate cancer, such as heart/circulatory disease, pneumonia, other unconnected cancers, or old age. About 2/3 of cases are slow growing, the other third more aggressive and fast developing.
Many factors, including genetics and diet, have been implicated in the development of prostate cancer.
The bankers walked through the principal streets of Accra as part of the event, which took place simultaneously in all the UBA branches in Ghana, as well as 19 branches across the continent.
Comments