Me & My Breasts, Bangsar Village II, Kuala Lumpur – 24 Oct 2009
By Dr Evelyn Ho 

It was a hot Saturday afternoon and nearly 30 participants gathered in the cool air-conditioned Event Hall of Bangsar Village II to be part of an interactive talk on how to understand the breasts, perform effective self breast examination and find out more about imaging of the breasts, especially with respect to screening for breast cancer. The audience ranged from children to senior citizens and regardless of age, they all had an interesting time learning about how the breasts has “personalities” of their own. Dr Evelyn Ho presented the facts in a manner that was light-hearted and the approach to breast health was positive.

Analogies were used to help in understanding the anatomy of the breasts including the uniqueness of every individual’s breast texture. Getting to know one’s own breasts is the first step towards being breast aware. However, familiarisation with the breasts will require a motivated effort initially until it becomes a routine to look and feel the breasts systematically, on a regular basis, not more than once a month. The audience were put through some active “exercises” to get a feel of the technique of effective self checks.

An active question and answer session ensued. The session ended at about 4pm with a group photograph. This health talk was part of the Stand Up For Pink @ Bangsar Village event. This is the first time Bangsar Village goes pink in support of International Breast Cancer Awareness month, a collaboration of efforts of Bangsar Village, VenusBuzz, Lariche Community, College of Radiology Academy of Medicine of Malaysia and Malaysian Breast Cancer Council.

NCR 2003 Report: Breast Cancer is still the top cancer amongst women

Latest statistics from
the National Cancer Registry (NCR) show
that lung cancer is the most common cancer experienced by men in the country, whilst
breast cancer is the top cancer in women. Lung cancer accounts for 13.8 per cent of cancer cases among men. For women, breast cancer accounts
for 31 per cent of cases.