Protect To Tell: Cervical Cancer Awareness

Living in the modern society, I realized people tend to get complacent about cancer. You will always hear people going “Oh, I will never get cancer. It will not happen to me.” But in fact, we never know. At age 24, I already lost a couple of friends to cancer. I never knew, neither do they.

What we can do is to be aware and take precautions. Like the saying goes, “Prevention is better then cure.”

Cervical Cancer is one of the top ten cancers in Singapore and with the efforts of the Singapore Society, more people are aware of it. Yet, there’s still many people out there, especially the younger women who didn’t know.

Protect To Tell was held at Lady M and we were treated to delicious sweet treats as pictured above while learning more about Cervical Cancer from the experts.

One of the experts at the event, Prof Tay Sun Kuie who shared about the myth that most people have for Cervical Cancer. He said something which I totally agree. It is something along the lines of “I’m the one that is not at risk, as I do not have a Cervix. But all of you, are at risk.”

Cervical Cancer is caused by HPV infections which is very common. Every women will tend to get HPV infections at a certain stage of our lives. To eliminate the chances of Cervical Cancer, it is advisable to get yourself vaccinated against HPV. The Vaccines are now made payable by medisave.

Here’s a model of how the Cervix will look like at different stages. A simple Pap Smear can detect pre cancer cells and it’s the stage where the pre cancer cells can be easily treated. Going for regular Pap Smear once a year can help detect the pre cancer cells if any before it fully develops into the cancer cells.

For a clearer picture, this is how the Cervix will looks like if affected by cancer. You do not want that to happen to you right?

If you’re sexually active and is 25 and above. I strongly suggest you to start having a Pap smear once a year. It’s not expensive and Singapore Cancer Society is offering free Pap Smear at the Bishan Clinic throughout this year.

This is how a Pap Smear Kit looks like. It is a procedure that is almost painless and fuss free.

As someone who has a small presence in the blogosphere, I hope to be able to spread this message to as many women out there. We should not neglect such risks and should get ourselves protected.

I’ll definitely be getting myself vaccinated from HPV soon. You should too and also should  arrange for regular Pap Smears if you are sexually active.

Visit http://www.singaporecancersociety.org.sg/ for more information.

Disclaimer: “Protect to Tell – Cervical Cancer Awareness” on 12^th April 2014 Sat (the “Event”) was held as a lunch session, organised and sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline Pte Ltd. I was not paid for participating in the Event. All personal views expressed here are entirely my own.”