Baheya Foundation for Breast Cancer to start building its new hospital in October City

Monday December 13, 2020

Baheya Foundation Offers Free Services, Fights to Raise Breast Cancer Awareness

 

83513306_2853760057996003_3139168889154306048_oBaheya women’s hospital is the first of its kind in Egypt, not only working to raise awareness of breast cancer, but also offering free treatment and services.

Baheya Foundation for early detection and treatment of breast cancer is one of the biggest and the only hospital in Egypt that offers its services to women for free.

The hospital takes its name from Baheya Othman, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in her older years. Othman courageously battled the disease for many years. During the course of her fight, she came to realize how difficult it was to get proper treatment in Egypt — particularly for women who cannot afford the outrageous expenses.

After Othman lost her battle to cancer, her family turned her house into a hospital, to help women suffering from cancer, especially those limited resources who cannot pay for treatment.

Today, Baheya Women’s Hospital in El Haram district— built on the site of Othman’s residence – offers its services for free to women from all walks of life, “no matter what their social status, religion or ethnicity is,” says Lamia Assem, Baheya Foundation Chief Marketing Officer. The free services offered by the hospital starts from from walk-in early detection screening to advanced therapy and treatment for cancer patients.

Baheya is also the first hospital to offer a comprehensive program to help patients deal emotionally with their illness. Moreover, it arranges for home visits for those who cannot attend in clinic. “Since we started in March 2015, Baheya has successfully done early detection tests on 110,000 women; 12,200 of those have received chemotherapy and the hospital has performed 6,275 surgeries,” says Assem.

Emotional resilience plays a huge role in battling cancer, especially as intensive cancer treatment like radio and chemotherapy take a devastating physical and emotional toll on the patients. Baheya understands that in Egypt, women always put their home and family before their own health, and is trying to change this attitude by pushing the concept that women need to be healthy in order to take care of their families. “Don’t wait until the last minute, do early checkups starting at the age of 30. Eat healthy balanced meals and walk or do sports for 20 minutes at least four times a week,” Assem advises women.

Raising both awareness and donations has not been an easy feat, says Assem, but the progress has been very promising. “Baheya’s success is built on the shoulders of every person, corporations and public institutions. We would not be able to continue its success without the consolidation of all the community, through donations, sponsorships and word of mouth.”

At present, Baheya Foundation is having a radiotherapy department equipped with two True Beam radiotherapy machines, says Tamer Shawky, Chairman, adding that the equipment features cutting edge technology that is not available elsewhere in Egypt as well as the Middle East.

Baheya Foundation for Early Detection and Treatment of Breast Cancer is also planning to establish a new LE 880 M hospital in Sheikh Zayed, October City, which will be dedicated mainly for surgeries. “The task at hand is to cover costs of Baheya’s second premises, in Sheikh Zayed.” Baheya should launch its high technology new fully equipped hospital through donations and the support of the community. It will break ground on the facility by year-end, and is planning to have the hospital up and running after three phases — the first of which will LE 480 M, the second LE 220 M, and the third LE 180 M.

“We also need to cover the ever-increasing running costs of medications that cost Baheya LE 10 million a month. Looking ahead, we also plan to increase the number of the early detection units at Baheya,” Shawky concluded.

To Donate for Baheya Breast Cancer Hospital Press here

 

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