Nairobi, October 26th, 2019 – The Estée Lauder Companies in partnership with UAP Old Mutual Group kicked off the Breast Cancer Awareness month – marked every October – by lighting up the UAP Old Mutual Tower in Pink.
The campaign’s main mandate is to encourage people worldwide to take action in the fight against breast cancer. The tower joins other landmark buildings and monuments around the world such as the Empire State Building in New York City, the Eiffel Tower in Paris & Tel Aviv Ferris Wheel in Israel in lighting the skyline pink making the campaign the first one of its kind in Kenya.
In addition to lighting the UAP Old Mutual Tower, Estée Lauder Companies also donated to a local Cancer focused charity organization.
The campaign culminated with a luncheon on Saturday 26th October, Power of Pink Luncheon.
The UAP Old Mutual Group, in response to this growing prevalence, has introduced a Critical Illness proposition. This cover is open to individuals and corporates and provides a financial cushion to a patient in the event of the occurrence of 14 critical illnesses; cancer being one of them. “At the moment of diagnosis, the life of the patient and their family is changed. The reality of the high cost of treatment causes untold worry, which is compounded by the fact that the standard medical insurance schemes do not fully cover for the treatment of such conditions. We seek to give peace of mind on this front, so a patient can focus on their health,” stated Jerim Otieno, Group MD Life.
Estée Lauder began raising funds to fight breast cancer in 1992, when the late Evelyn H. Lauder, a former Senior Vice President of Estée Lauder, co-created the iconic pink ribbon and started The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign. It set in motion a long-term movement that aims to “inspire the millions of people touched every year by breast cancer”.
The campaign has raised more than US$76 million globally, funding 250 medical research grants through Breast Cancer Research Foundation BCRF (US$62 million from total funds raised) and is active in more than 70 countries around the world.
“We are incredibly delighted and proud to bring this campaign to Nairobi for the first time ever. This is very central to our mission to serve, celebrate and empower women. We are very thankful to our partners for joining us in this effort and sharing our hopes and ambitions of eradicating breast cancer” said Mario Lazzaroni Estée Lauder Companies Country Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Statistics from the 2018 GLOBOCAN report by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer revealed that the disease is the leading type of cancer diagnosed in Kenya. Out of the approximately 6,000 (5,985) women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, about half 2,553 will die of it.
Findings from the new study Access to Care and Financial Burden for Patients with Breast Cancer in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria indicate that a patient’s chance of survival can be impacted by delays in diagnosis and treatment, limitations in access to appropriate and quality cancer care, and financial burdens associated with receiving care.
Medical records used in the study were retrieved from six tertiary hospitals spread across the three countries. In Kenya, the participating hospitals were Kenyatta National Hospital and Aga Khan University Hospital.
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