Yemisi Izuora
As part of its corporate social responsibility(CSR), Dana Air has announced its partnership with Project PINK BLUE to conduct free prostate cancer screening for 3,000 men across Nigeria.
The free screening initiative which is tagged- ‘Men on Blue project’’ will commence on the 29th of June 2019 and will hold in Abuja, Niger state, Nassarawa state, River state, and Akwa Ibom state.
The Accountable Manager/ COO of Dana Air, Mr Obi Mbanuzuo while speaking during a visit by the Project PINK BLUE team to the corporate headquarters of Dana Air said, “at some point in 2014, we just felt the need to redirect our CSR drive. We realized that cancer was becoming a big secret killer but the awareness was really low. Then we decided to partner Project PINK BLUE in 2015 to assist survivors, create more awareness and conduct free screening exercise for Nigerians at intervals.’’
Last year, we partnered the Rotary to conduct blood donation camps in Lagos and we are planning other lifesaving CSR projects in the coming months. We have a lot of initiatives ongoing at the moment and we are glad to announce that we have impacted millions of lives in a positive way. We can only thank our guests for their support and Nigerians for embracing these initiatives.’’
“We commend the Project PINK BLUE team and we encourage more corporate bodies to support them because at Dana Air, we are unrelenting in our humanitarian efforts across Nigeria.’’
The Executive Director of Project Pinkblue, Runcie C.W. Chidebe while commending Dana Air for supporting Project PINK BLUE since 2015, noted “every October, several organizations create awareness about breast and cervical cancer, however, prostate cancer is always missing; leaving several men to die in silence and pain of discovering their prostate cancer at late stages”.
“Cancer is responsible for 70,327 deaths annually in Nigeria and prostate cancer has become a major health concern among men and it is the leading cause of cancer death among men with incident rates of 32.8 per 100,000 men and mortality rates of 16.3 per 100,000 men. Over 15 Nigerian men die every day from prostate cancer” said Chidebe.
Commenting further, Runcie said “Our goal is to use Men on Blue project to close the gap of awareness, education, research and screening for prostate cancer at the select locations and our plan is to screen at least 3,000 men, reach 30,000 men, 50,000 women and youth directly and 15 million through traditional and social media in Nigeria. Those who are interested in the screening can call 08188347020 or mail info@projectpinkblue.org“
“We sincerely appreciate Act Foundation for the funds and Dana Air for always supporting and we strongly believe that this health intervention ‘’Men on Blue’’ will help phase out late diagnosis of prostate cancer in Nigeria, he added.
Dana Air is one Of Nigeria’s leading airlines with numerous awards for its social responsibility drive across the country.