KUWAIT: The social awareness of the dangers and risk factors of cancer reached 65 percent in Gulf countries, Secretary-General of the Gulf Union for Fighting Cancer Dr Khaled Al-Saleh said yesterday. In a speech he delivered at the closing session of the Seventh GCC Cancer Awareness Week, Saleh said that the new rates resulted from spreading social health awareness, which helped increase the cured cases from cancer in Kuwait and other GCC countries. He stressed the importance of cooperation between the public and private health sectors to succeed in raising levels of cancer awareness, noting that the late diagnosis rates have decreased, while cured cases from cancer have remarkably increased.

Upon the occasion, the Head of the coordinating committee Dr Hessah Al-Shaheen said that more than 35 activities were presented during the Seventh GCC Cancer Awareness Week, aiming to send awareness messages to society and to help patients of all types of cancer. On her part, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sidra Association for the Psychological Care of Cancer Patients, Sheikha Azza Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah, stressed in her speech the role played by the Gulf Union the field of community awareness for cancer patients and the services provided by the association. It focuses on the psychological treatment of the people with cancer in all stages of the disease, by creating a positive environment surrounding the patients and their relatives that will enable them to adapt to their health condition and enhance their response to medical treatment, she said.

Meanwhile, the Honorary President of the Kuwait Association for Health Promotion and Health Media, Sheikha Anisa Salem Al-Hamoud Al-Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah emphasized the important activities of the Gulf Week in the field of cancer awareness and its role in educating people about the importance of early detection. In her speech, she praised the important role played by the media in raising health awareness and health behaviors that would lead to a society with a high level of awareness with a healthy lifestyle that would help in achieving the goals of sustainable development. —KUNA