26 October 2018
This week, a multidisciplinary team of UK breast cancer specialists travelled to the West Bank with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) to help develop breast cancer care.
One of the visiting surgeons was Ahmed Mustafa, a Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon based at Borders General Hospital in Melrose, Scotland. In the short film below, speaking from Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, Ahmed describes working with and training local breast cancer surgeons.
Jane Macaskill, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, also joined the mission. In an interview with MAP last week, Jane reflected “sadly, in the West Bank there is not a perception among women that cancer is treatable, despite breast cancer being potentially curable if caught early.”
Throughout the week, Jane and the team helped Palestinian surgeons at Rafidia Hospital to develop a surgical technique commonly used in the UK to assess if cancer has spread to lymph glands through a limited axillary (armpit) operation, known as a ‘sentinel node biopsy’. Watch the video below, where Jane explains the targeted surgical technique.
In the final video, Ahmed describes the surgeries he and the other UK surgeons performed at Rafidia Hospital alongside the local surgical team.
This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, MAP is encouraging supporters to write to their MP, to call for action from the UK Government to address the needs of Palestinian women affected by breast cancer.
