Wearing pink ‘T’ shirts and head bands, they stood for over 10 minutes to form the ribbon measuring 280X220 feet at the event that would enter the Guineess Book of World Records.
The host, HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG), provided the participants with mammography coupons, cancer screening and consultation with cancer specialist free of cost.
HCG Chairman Dr B S Ajaikumar said India lacked awareness on health and neglected preventive health checkup.
He said distributing mammography coupons is one of the measures to eradicate the social stigma associated with cancer.
According to Population-Based Cancer Registry - 2006/2008, compared to any other City in India, Bangalore has the highest incidence of breast cancer at 36.1 per every 1,00,000 persons, followed by Thiruvananthapuram at 33, Mumbai at 32.3, Delhi at 32.3, Chennai at 31.5 and Kolkata at 25.5.
A cancer survivor, 46-year-old Roopa Venkatesh said she has seen suffering due to breast cancer for years. Her grandmother, diagnosed with breast cancer, has been fighting for the past 17 years and her elder sister succumbed to the disease recently.
“Early medical intervention is the key to fight breast cancer. I was 41 when I was diagnosed with the disease and ever since, I have taken it as a challenge to fight it. After five years of treatment, I am an active and an enthusiastic person like any other women,” she said.
Roopa, who is a chartered accountant by profession, runs a software company in the City.
Along with five other cancer survivors she also runs a group called ‘pink hope support’.
The group counsels patients about the disease. The patients who are not comfortable about discussing certain things with the doctors, approach the group. “We help the patients to cope with the disease and overcome fear,” she said.
The group started a year ago has counselled over 200 patients till date, she added.