Dana Air has announced its partnership with Project PINK BLUE to conduct free prostate cancer screening for 3,000 men across the country.
The Communication Manager, Dana Air, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, who made the disclosure Thursday in Lagos, said the exercise was part of its Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) of giving back to the society.
He noted that the free screening initiative which was tagged, “Men on Blue Project’’ would begin on June 29 and would take place in Abuja, Niger, Nassarawa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
The Accountable Manager of Dana Air, Mr Obi Mbanuzuo while speaking during a visit by the Project PINK BLUE, said at some point in 2014, the airline felt the need to redirect its CSR drive.
“We realised that cancer was becoming a big secret killer but the awareness is really low.
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“Then we decided to partner Project PINK BLUE in 2015 to assist survivors, create more awareness and conduct free screening for Nigerians at intervals.
“Last year, we partnered the Rotary to conduct blood donation camps in Lagos and we are planning other lifesaving CSR projects in the coming months.
“We have a lot of initiatives ongoing at the moment and we are glad to announce that we have impacted millions of lives in a positive way.
“We can only thank our guests for their support and Nigerians for embracing these initiatives,” Mbanuzuo said in a statement by Ezenwa.
Mbanuzuo, while commending the foundation, encouraged more corporate bodies to support them, adding that at Dana Air was unrelenting in its humanitarian efforts across the country.
The statement said that the Executive Director of Project Pink Blue, Runcie Chidebe, also commended the airline for supporting the foundation since 2015.
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Chidebe noted that every October, several organisations created awareness about breast and cervical cancer.
He said: “However, prostate cancer is always missing, leaving several men to die in silence and pain of discovering their prostate cancer at late stages.
“Cancer is responsible for 70,327 deaths annually in Nigeria and prostate cancer has become a major health concern among men.
“It is the leading cause of cancer death among men with incident rates of 32.8 per 100,000 men and mortality rates of 16.3 per 100,000 men. Over 15 Nigerian men die every day from prostate cancer.
Chidebe added that its goal was to use Men on Blue Project to close the gap of awareness, education, research and screening for prostate cancer at the select locations.
He explained that the plan was to screen at least 3,000 men, reach 30,000 men, 50,000 women and youth directly and 15 million through traditional and social media in Nigeria.
Chidebe thanked Act Foundation for the funds and Dana Air for always supporting, adding that it strongly believed that the health intervention would help phase out late diagnosis of prostate cancer in the country. (NAN)