Headline Oct. 14/ ''' BREAST CANCER BRAVES '''

''' BREAST CANCER BRAVES '''

TO THE VERY LOVING AND RESPECTFUL memory of my eldest sister Imtiaz Hashmi Querishi  -caring, kind, sacrificing, highly intelligent :

Poetess, Knowledgeable,  and one light of brilliant humanity. Her very bond of unique ministrations saw a blessed family through. Rest in Peace.

And then, from Student : also one founder - of the World Students Society, the first editor-in-chief of Sam Daily Times, Engineer, Technologist, and a very hardworking samurai, and- 

Rabo's best friend : Haleema, - to the loving memory of her mother. This great girl, then want on to take the place of her mother and held the family together. The World Students Society pays respects.

ACCORDING TO THE JOURNAL OF Pakistan Medical Association, Pakistan has the highest rate of Breast Cancer in Asia.

In the absence of a Cancer Registry System, Pink Ribbon Pakistan -an advocacy group which aims to build the country's first breast cancer hospital in Lahore-

Estimates that an average of 90,000 breast cases are diagnosed every year, and over 40,000 deaths are caused by it.

THROUGHOUT history, the female breast has served as an iconic responsibility : a visual respresentation of the feminine form, sexuality and fertility. 

And with that the master story from Hina Javed, unfolds.

*I've made the decision to have the surgery sooner than the later. Every day, I'd think, I've only got a few hours left till they finally cut me off. I cannot help but wonder : when all of this is done -will he still want me?

Maheen, was 25 years old and ready to tie the knot -the picture of happiness, well-being, and high spirits.

Standing next to the groom in the wedding hall, she once again felt butterflies in her stomach, reminding her of the fluttering feeling she got when she first saw him. 

Her emotions ran high and the stress of having a perfect wedding day was overwhelming. All the arrangements were carefully done, and the guests were pouring in. 

However, in a cruel test of fate, her wedding day soon became her worst nightmare. A third tap on the shoulder yanked Maheen from her reverie. She turned around and saw her mother's worried eyes. 

She took her by the hand to the dressing room -which was less than 20 paces away, but felt like a mile. With each step she took, Maheen thought of a different possibility of what could go wrong.

Despite the growing dread in her stomach, she could not fathom of what she heard next.

Ten days earlier, during a medical exam at Liaquat National Hospital, Maheen pointed out a lump she had noticed in her wedding finery and seated on a sofa in the dressing room, she listened to her mother break the news to her :

Maheen was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer............... She felt heavy, suddenly, as if she was ''filled with lead and fixed to the floor''. He first thought was to call off the wedding : '' I felt guilty that my husband was getting less than he should.''

The remainder of the wedding took place in silence. The wait for the surgeon's appointment was the first.

Maheen cowered at the thought of undergoing a radical mastectomy and living without her breast for the rest of her life. Finally, on that cold evening in December 2010, the surgeon sat down to brief her about her condition.

''You are not going to die from this,'' she reassured her. ''It's a tiny tumour and very responsive to treatment. You have the option to conserve your breast [lumpectomy], -but a mastectomy would eliminate all chances of the cancer's return.'' Maheen opted for a lumpectomy.

''At Aga Khan University Hospital [AKUH] alone, we see about 400-500 breast cancer patients every year,'' says Dr. Munira Shabbir Mossjee, an oncologist at AKUH.

''Almost one in every eight women suffers from the disease.'' However, if diagnosed in the early stages, there is almost 90 per cent chance of survival,'' she says.

One major decision the patients have to make in early stage breast cancer is whether to have a lumpectomy or mastectomy.

In some cases, a lumpectomy, also known as breast-conserving surgery, is enough to render the patients disease-free. In other, more advanced stages of breast cancer, patients have NO choice but to get a single or double mastectomy.

Mosajee explains that an early stage breast cancer, opting for a lumpectomy may affect the risk of the cancer's return.

''This is also known as a local recurrence, the return of cancer to the breast, chest wall, or lymph nodes after treatment.'' She adds that most local recurrences occur within five years of the first diagnosis.

The Sad Honor and Serving of the latest Operational Research on Breast Cancer continues. 

Please do share forward, the world over.

With respectful dedication to the loving memory of all those women who lost their lives to Breast Cancer, and then the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Life Beyond Burns '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless