The Punjab Government has approached Yuvraj Singh to partner it in spreading cancer awareness. In a State where, on an average, a person dies of cancer every one-and-a-half hours, Yuvraj’s personal victory over the malady is expected to strike a chord with the masses.
The cricketer has already started the non-profit Yuvraj Singh Foundation, which has launched its ‘YouWeCan’ Fight for Cancer initiative. In fact, the State Government wants to work in partnership with YouWeCan, which aims to facilitate early detection of cancer too. Besides the Indian Cancer Society being official knowledge partner of the YouWeCan initiative, leading sports brand Puma, Yes Bank, Yebhi.com and others have also jumped at a chance to contribute to the social initiative.
The health & family welfare department will organise mega cancer awareness and screening camps in all 22 district civil hospitals on September 28-29. “For these camps, Yuvraj will be our awareness ambassador. His pictures will be used on posters, brochures, banners and other material to be distributed among the people,” a senior official told The Pioneer.
Yuvraj has also volunteered to attend meetings with the State Government to promote and generate awareness about these camps. The official said, “Yuvraj, being a youth icon and a star cricketer, is loved by all. People will connect with him and there is no better man who can tell people about it, as he has emerged victorious in his fight against the disease.”
In one of the first of its kind door-to-door cancer survey in Punjab, 2.64 crore (2,64,84,434) people in 50,53,447 households were covered across 12,603 villages and 217 cities and towns. This covered 97.78 per cent of the population. The survey revealed that 33,318 cancer deaths have been reported from the State in five years (2008-12), with highest in ludhiana district (3,945), followed by Jalandhar (3,249) and Amritsar (2,755).
Some 23,874 persons were found afflicted with cancer across Punjab and 84,453 more are showing symptoms. Cancer incidence rate is 90 persons per one lakh population, against the national figure of 80 persons. Among the districts, cancer incidence is highest in Muktsar (136.3 persons per one lakh population), followed by Mansa (134.8) and Bathinda (125.8). Even as the Malwa region has earned the dubious distinction of being a ‘cancer belt’, with the highest average of 107.1 patients per one lakh population, Doaba is not far behind in being a ‘cancer-prone area’.
Doaba includes districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr. Cancer incidence rate is 88.1. Majha shows the lowest number of cases, at 64.7 per lakh.