The “Building the Pink Road of Hope” Project in Malaysia aims to increase access to breast cancer screening among underprivileged Malaysian women, ultimately leading to earlier detection of breast cancers among this cohort. The programme partners with organisations frequented by potential participants, such as welfare departments, community organisations, religious and social organisations, and public or private clinics. These partners are encouraged to display materials about the breast cancer screening and detection ecosystem and to co-organise breast cancer health education and awareness sessions.
Potential participants can register via any partner organisation and are contacted by a project team member for a quick interview to identify any challenges they face in obtaining their cancer screening. The project team resolves these challenges in innovative ways, such as chartering buses for transportation, negotiating with local businesses for fair rates for transportation, and organising special screening days on weekends and after hours.
Private hospitals with mammography services are also engaged as partners, and strategic purchasing strategies are used to ensure that every state participating in the programme has at least one private hospital partner. To overcome misconceptions and false beliefs about cancer screening, NCSM’s counsellors resolve questions via a toll-free cancer helpline or on-site during educational and awareness activities. Meals are provided for participants and their family members who accompany them, and same-day reporting is carried out to reduce delays in receiving results.
Figure 5: Breast Cancer screening methods and mammogram uptake in Malaysia
Figure 6: Workflow order for free mammogram
Project Results / Impact on Stakeholder
NCSM collaborated with Etiqa from Phase 1 till Phase 3 to run this screening programme. This partnership started from July 2017 till October 2020 for three years across a total of
11 states. Throughout this period, a total of 17,738 women underwent health screenings.
In terms of readership from print media, online media, and broadcast media, we reached a total of 190,810,536 people. Under this ecosystem, the quality of life of participating communities have been improved, their abilities to stay active and well have increased and improvement in their access to good healthcare have improved.
The Etiqa screening programme was provided in 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur had the highest number of participants with 6,384 (36%) involved in the programme This was followed by Melaka with 2,630 (14.8%) participants, Perak with 2,512 (14.2%) participants, Johor with 1,909 (10.8%) participants, Pahang with 1,613 (9.1%) participants, Penang with 823 (4.5%) participants, Kedah with 740 (4.2%) participants, Terengganu with 575 (3.2%) participants, Kelantan with 207 (1.2%) participants, and Selangor with 174 participants (1.0%). The lowest number of participants were in Negeri Sembilan with 171(1.0%) participants.
Link to Website / Social Media / Blogs
1. National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSMs) Website: https://cancer.org.my/
2. “Building the Pink Road of Hope” Coffee table Book: https://cancer.org.my/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Etiqa_FINAL-version.pdf
3. Etiqa Free Mammogram Website: https://myetiqa.com/etiqa-cares-listings/free-mammogram-for-underprivileged-women-with-ncsm/
4. National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSMs) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalcancersocietymalaysia
5. National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSMs) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationalcancersocietymy/
6. National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSMs) TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ncsmalaysia
