Charity celebrates success in Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Bermuda’s success in confronting breast cancer, particularly in early detection, is to be replicated in other forms of the disease.
Chris Fosker, chief executive of the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre, said the charity’s “big focus” was on expanding its screening programmes to target all cancers — including lung cancer, which is ranked worldwide as the most dangerous.
Dr Fosker said: “Lung cancer screening is still a bit ad hoc in Bermuda. We’ve shown with breast cancer that it can be done; we want to bring that to lung cancer and others.”
As the island marks breast cancer awareness month, Dr Fosker highlighted its success stories with a disease that, along with prostate cancer, is the most prevalent form of cancer in Bermuda.
“We’re doing really well on some cancers, particularly breast cancer, when you look at early detection,” he said.
The disease is caught in 70 per cent of instances, compared with 65 per cent in the United States and 45 per cent in Britain. Breast cancer is being caught at the metastatic stage in just 2 per cent of cases.
Dr Fosker said: “We need to acknowledge where we’re doing well. Trust is very important in healthcare — overall, we’re doing well and we are improving.”
The island’s cancer pick-up rate rose from 67 per cent in 2010 to 77 per cent in 2020.
The charity, which is committed to providing services free of co-pay regardless of a client’s insurance coverage, hopes to expand to its west with its purchase of the property behind its headquarters on Point Finger Road in Paget.
Peter Lozier, executive vice president group head of benefits at BF&M and Argus, said the BF&M breast cancer awareness walk this week proved “both moving and inspiring”.
He added: “Seeing so many people come together to honour loved ones, raise awareness and share hope was a powerful reminder of how much strength there is in this community.
“Bringing BF&M and Argus together has given us an opportunity to make care more connected — combining our health networks, wellness programmes and insurance expertise to better support people through every stage of their health journey.
“When it comes to cancer, that means helping more people catch it early, get the right treatment and feel supported along the way through partnerships like the one we have with the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre.
“Our team is excited to be celebrating 30 years of this important community event next year, and we’re looking forward to marking that milestone under our new name — Allshores.”
Dr Fosker, who is marking six months as chief executive, said: “Just before we opened our radiation unit in 2017, our staff count was 17. Now we’re over 50, so we’ve tripled in an eight-year period and had the same physical size, so we’re really excited to breathe a bit.”
The arrival of radiation treatment was a “game-changer, really impactful”, not to mention unprecedented for an island community.
He said Bermuda should be “really proud” as the world’s smallest country to offer the service, something that has prompted other jurisdictions to get in touch to “copy our model of care”.
He added: “Once we opened, the number of people able to access radiation treatment doubled.
“It has been particularly impactful for those with HIP and FutureCare, which have quadrupled. It is really making a difference for our more vulnerable population.”
He said roughly 1,500 patients had been treated for cancer since the unit opened — including roughly 400 cases of breast cancer.
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