Cancer centre to ‘share experiences’ at Caribbean workshop

Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre has been invited by the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) to speak at the upcoming Cervical Cancer Advocacy Workshop to be held in St. Maarten, 21 - 22 March 2013. Education Officer, Mrs. Rhonda Smith-Simmons will travel to St. Maarten and present “Sharing Experiences” speaking to the attendees about the collaboration between our Centre and the Bermuda Department of Health, highlighting the success from the joint campaign. 

“The cancer prevention strategies of the HCC are well aligned with the mission of Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre” states Tara Soares, Executive Director.  “We are pleased to be a leading organization with a dedicated education focus able to participate in the Caribbean Collation in support of the fight against cancer.”

Mrs. Smith-Simmons will provide a presentation at the Cervical Cancer Advocacy Capacity workshop highlighting the initiatives and progress in Bermuda which have supported prevention strategies and early detection for cervical cancer.  Locally, Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre, the Ministry of Health and other health agencies have worked together in support of prevention and early detection strategies for cervical, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. 

Mrs. Smith-Simmons said, “Attending this workshop is a wonderful opportunity to showcase how collaboration between organizations can achieve far more than if either organization operated independently. I look forward to presenting in St. Maarten and learning from other participating agencies.”

Fourteen Caribbean Countries will gather with the objective of becoming better aware of, trained in, and motivated to embark on Cervical Cancer Advocacy initiatives.  Countries include: Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Sint Martin, The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, St. Kitts & Nevis and Trinidad & Tobago.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) is a civil society alliance formed to combat chronic diseases. The alliance was established following a Caribbean civil society led conference on chronic diseases in 2008.  The HCC supports the conviction that the burdens of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can be reduced by comprehensive and integrated preventive and control strategies to the individual, family, community, national and regional levels and through collaborative programmes, partnerships and policies supported by governments, private sectors, NGOs and out other social, regional and international partners.

Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre’s continued commitment to our community is to provide awareness, prevention and cancer detection programmes and services.  The benefit of cancer prevention and detection of cancers in the early stage is that lives can be saved and the cost of the Island’s health care, greatly reduced. 

For more information visit Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre’s website at www.chc.bm or call 236-1001 to speak with Mrs. Smith-Simmons directly.