Apparently there are 22,000 women on the island between the age of 45 and 75 that could benefit from routine breast cancer screening. If you catch the lump on time, says Enrita Werleman, you might be able to skip the awful chemo treatments and manage to arrest the disease with just surgery and radiation. Enrita set up the foundation’s program, in which each member of the target population will receive an automatic appointment for screening every two years, in a friendly and centrally located clinic in Eagle, away from the hospital, in a fast, efficient and money saving preventive measure. The new digital mammogram machine, courtesy of banker and philanthropist Lio Capriles, from Curacao, only takes fifteen minutes to process a breast exam, and promises to reduce the stress of waiting for results. The initial funds to jump-start the project were generated at Cas Di Glas, in a two-year Peter Balliere initiative. Capriles came up with the rest. Jairo Boekhoudt design the ad campaign, with Celia Nagtegaal, urging women to show up, and do themselves the favor by saving their own lives. Radiologist Vanessa Williams and surgeon Dr. Deepu Darynani are on board, also a number of trained technicians, all working to reduce the impact of cancer and improve survival rates. Check Stichting BOB Aruba out on Facebook.
I wrote the above blurb in March 2015, and forgot about it, then over lunch my girlfriend Carla told me one day how much she enjoyed the short and pleasant visit at BOB, in the IBISA building. Would you believe that I went home after that lunch and found the letter in my mail box inviting me to come for a visit at BOB. I did. A sweet technician by the name of Marlene was polite and respectful, her hands were warm, she squeezed my boobs 4 times, vertically and horizontally, and told the results would be sent to my house doctors, in a few days, the whole thing took fifteen minutes.
We are deeply impressed with the set up and the process of routine breast cancer screening, wow, I was treated like a client not a patient, and enjoyed the exchange with Enrita & Marlene. Enrita asked me to encourage my friends to show up when summoned, because fifteen minutes could save your life!
Stichting BOB Aruba, was founded in October 12, 2012. The foundation’s goal is to promote early detection of breast cancer by screening healthy women between 45-75 years.
