World Cancer Day: What you can do to help

The fourth of February is World Cancer Day which is when individuals and organizations globally get united to prioritize global health and to raise cancer awareness. Each year worldwide, over eight million people die from cancer.

One event which quite visibly marks this occasion is the blue and orange lighting of the Empire State Building in New York City. Orange and blue are the colors of the World Cancer Day organizers, which is the International Cancer Control.

Festivals will be held by communities worldwide. Aside from festivals, there will be events like campaigns, public information and seminars to educate people and raise awareness about how to fight cancer through early detection and screening. Cancer awareness and fighting the disease can also be done through urging politicians to make issues of cancer a priority, by quitting smoking, increasing physical activity and through healthy eating.

From this year up to 2018, We Can. I Can is the World Cancer Day theme. Individually and as a team, people can do their part to reduce the global cancer burden. This campaign reveals the actions that individuals and communities can take to help save lives. They can do this through achieving greater cancer care equity and making it a priority at the highest levels of public service to fight cancer.

What You and Your Community Can Do To Help:

• Your community can help by improving affordable cancer health care access for every member of the population.
• Communities can also help by encouraging workplaces and schools to implement physical activity and nutrition activities that will help people implement healthy life habits.
• Get rid of myths that lead to discrimination and stigma against people with this disease in certain communities.
• Educate everyone about the links between behaviours of lifestyle and the risk of cancer such as lack of physical activity, poor diet and smoking.
• Individuals can help by returning to work as soon as they can after getting treated for cancer. This helps restore the income, social contact stability, routine and normality of life.
• Sharing their own experience with cancer is another way individuals can help. Joining support groups to help make good changes for those suffering from cancer and communicating with decision makers is another way to help.
• Support survivors and cancer patients with the emotional and physical impact of cancer even after the end of treatment.
• Knowing the early symptoms and signs of cancer through guidelines that teach you about early detection is important. Often, it is easier to treat cancer if this is detected early.
• Making healthy choices in life including staying safely in the sun, putting limits on alcohol consumption, eating a good diet and getting tons of physical fitness will help.

There are so many things you can do to help raise awareness about World Cancer Day starting with yourself and your community.