Coinciding with World Cancer Day, which was commemorated on Saturday February 4th, the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) launched a new awareness campaign for the year 2023, ‘All Against Cancer’, in which it sets out the challenge of achieving a 70 percent survival rate for this disease by 2030. Prevention, early detection and research are key to achieving this goal. “As hard as it may seem, one in two men and one in three women will get cancer, but it is in your hands to change the future. I was diagnosed with liver cancer and I can give my name and surname to one of them”, said Encarni Rico at the information table set up by the AECC in Mijas Pueblo. According to the report ‘Cancer figures in Spain’, published by the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), the number of cancers diagnosed in Spain this year will exceed 279,000 cases. Improving the quality of life of these people and increasing their survival rate depends on everyone, insists the Spanish Association Against Cancer.

For the time being, explained Paloma Gómez, vice-president of the AECC in Mijas and Fuengirola, the association allocates 20 percent of its funds to research, another percentage to preventive campaigns such as today’s, and the rest, but no less important, to patient support, “offering transfers to hospitals, a psychologist, a physiotherapist, a social worker, Pilates and yoga classes... whatever the patient asks us for, we are there to try to provide it”. Colon cancer will be the most common cancer in 2023, followed by breast, lung and prostate cancer, according to the document. In this regard, the mayor of Mijas, Josele González (PSOE), also present at this information table, stressed the importance of early detection, “prioritising medical tests and social and health care which is so fundamental, not only through public health but also through groups such as the Spanish Association Against Cancer”, said the mayor, who also expressed  words of affection dedicated to “all those patients who have moved on with their lives and especially to those who are now fighting the disease”.

Cancer prevention The Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) also asks the central government in Spain and the Junta de Andalucía (Regional Government) for a greater commitment to the fight against this disease, increasing screening and promoting new laws, including those on tobacco and palliative care, “and what better way to reach 2030 with a survival rate of 70 percent”, Candela León (Cs), councillor for Health at the Mijas Town Hall, also showed her support for the association “for all the work they do throughout the year with people suffering from some type of cancer”. Similarly, the non-attached councillor, Esperanza Jiménez, highlighted the excellent attention provided to patients by the AECC, “who support their patients and go with them wherever they need to go, which is why it is essential that we do all we can to help”.  

Share it with this link: https://mijasint.com/?a=26579