National Breast Cancer Awareness month this October – get yourself screened

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and if you or a loved-one are older than 40, or you have a sneaky suspicion your health may be at risk, read on to see how the PinkDrive NPC (a health sector NGO) has assisted thousands of women across South Africa with cancer screenings.

On 25 October 2019, PinkDrive will be celebrating 10 years of existence. They continue to grow and expand their fleet in order to assist and offer free cancer screening services to the medically uninsured. In 2018, an additional three women’s health units were added to the fleet of three mobile mammography and gynaecology units, one EduTruck and seven educational vehicles.

Noelene Kotschan who started PinkDrive in 2009, endured her own hardship with cancer and has lost many loved ones to it.

“When people ask me how PinkDrive started, I jokingly say through a spark of insanity. But I realised that breast cancer was on the rise in South Africa and that the cancer space was ready for a tangible solution that could take health to the people. And so PinkDrive was born.”

PinkDrive’s cardinal purpose is to contribute meaningfully towards preventing as many people as it can, from succumbing to breast, cervical, prostate and testicular cancer.

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Its primary focus is on people without access to reasonable care for these conditions, and who reside in areas where health services are not accessible.

“It recognises that treatable cancers receiving even the basic levels of care could translate into varying lengths of extended life for the afflicted when detected and treated early. Its posture is ostensibly a promoter of health awareness in general, and specifically health education and heightening awareness of gender-related cancers in South Africa,” says Antoinette Joubert, Corporate Relationship Manager of PinkDrive in Pretoria.

PinkDrive has five principal interventions through its flagship programmes (PinkDrive and More Balls Than Most):

“These are channelled through mobile point-of-contact service delivery by skilled, certificated, medical or nursing practitioners.”

1. Clinical Breast Exams. A mass screening service provided to women and men of all ages. This service includes one-on-one cancer education focusing on self-examinations as well as a breast examination.
2. Mammograms. A select screening service primarily provided to women over the age of 40, unless they are referred for a mammogram by a doctor.
3. Pap Smears. Cervical cancer screening.
4. Prostate Specific Antigen Test (PSA). These tests are a form of rapid testing for men above the age of 40. These tests are administered by testing an adequate sample of blood taken from a subject.
5. Prostate and testicular cancer awareness and education. At all activations, More Balls Than Most sets up information booths.

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Indigent and medically uninsured women and men are the primary beneficiaries of PinkDrive’s commitment.

“People living in rural, township and semi-urban geographies across South Africa, are of the highest priority. Beneficiaries who can afford paying for the service, are charged an approved nominal amount, which in turn funds the services to the indigent and medically uninsured beneficiaries,” Joubert concludes.

If you would like to get involved with PinkDrive, contact Antoinette Joubert at antoinette@pinkdrive.co.za or call (012) 332 2945 for more information.

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