PORTUGUESE PRESIDENT Cavaco Silva has appealed to the leaders of the Algarve’s health sector to facilitate breast cancer screenings in rural areas.
Cavaco Silva, who was taking part in the second Taça Portugal Solidário em Golfe, a national charity golf tournament at the Monte Rei Resort in Vila Nova de Cacela on Saturday, said: “It is necessary for the powers that be to facilitate screenings for women who live outside of large urban centres.”
The tournament, which was opened by Carlos Barbosa from the Automóvel Clube de Portugal (ACP), raised 70,000 euros for charity.
This money was donated to the Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Mulher com Cancro da Mama (APAMCM), the Portuguese association which supports women with breast cancer, during the closing dinner at the Hilton hotel in Vilamoura. Last year, the funds raised by the tournament were given to an association linked with helping people with disabilities.
Cavaco Silva and his wife Maria Cavaco Silva raised awareness of the need for women to be checked regularly for breast cancer.
The President also said that he had heard that “many women are fearful” of being tested, but that it is important because: “not having it done in time can mean losing your life.”
Verónica Rufino, President of the APAMCM said that she was very grateful on behalf of the association for the donation and that it will finance the charity for almost the entire year.
“This was the value that the health ministry used to give to our association, which has not happened for two years,” she said, adding that the building of new headquarters is part of the charity’s future plans.
In Portugal, 4,500 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year, being the cancer with the greatest incidence in women in Portugal.
“The cancer that affects more women in Portugal is breast cancer, followed by colon and lung cancers,” said Vitor Veloso, president of the Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro, a national league against cancer.
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