Day 2 Harare breast course for nurses

The second day of the breast course in Harare was just as much fun as the first.

The day started with Dr Anna giving a talk about treatment of breast cancer.  She modified the standard lecture to include local statistics.  About 5000 new cases of cancer are registered every year in Zimbabwe and about 1500 people die annually.  60% of cancers are caused by infections (Karposi's sarcoma from HIV and cervical cancer from HPV are the main two)

Sr Fairall with Pretty Kusendwa

We were lucky enough to have 3 sisters from the Island Hospice in Harare.  One of them, Sr Konnie Fairall offered to run the palliative care session.  The group was split into 4 and each group were given a "patient" to discuss.  That formed the basis for the discussion on palliative care.

The class practising the post operative exercises

After an excellent lunch, when everyone was feeling sleepy, Sr Lieske led the session on post operative exercises.  Over the last decade, exercise has been recognised as being an essential part of post surgical and post cancer management.  The exercises she taught were breast cancer specific but all the participants felt more relaxed after doing them.

Portia from Novartis

The course was really well organised.  I would like to take an opportunity to thank our 2 main sponsors: Novartis and Baard.  

Sr Mativenga and Dr Anna Nyakabau

To the many other sponsors that keep our course afloat: thank you.  Once again thanks to  Dr Anna Nyakabau and her team: Sr Mativenga and Primrose.  We look forward to seeing you again soon.