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UCSI pharmacy students fight cancer


KUALA LUMPUR: The fight against cancer gained traction as UCSI University’s (UCSI) pharmacy students made it the theme for this year’s UCSI 14th Annual Public Health Campaign 2015. Held in Giant Bandar Kinrara Mall, Puchong, the campaign aimed to promote greater public awareness towards breast, colorectal and lung cancer. 

Themed ‘Prevent Cancer Today, Live A Better Tomorrow’, the two-day campaign was graced by Dr Balachandran a/l Satiamurti, Director of Selangor State Health Department, as the guest of honour. It was also attended by Senior Professor Dato’ Dr Khalid Yusoff, Vice-Chancellor and President of UCSI, as well as Koh Swee Hyong, Vice-President of UCSI’s Student Affairs & Alumni Department. 

Dr Balachandran thanked the University for promoting public awareness in the fight against cancer. He pointed out that the cancers chosen were also pertinent as they were the nation’s three leading cancers. Cancers affecting the breast, colon and rectum, as well as lung affected 18.1%, 12.3% and 10.2% of the nation’s population, respectively. 

“I am pleased that UCSI reaches out to the public on a regular basis. The Health Ministry is doing its best to drive early awareness campaigns and UCSI’s efforts clearly support our initiatives,” he said during his speech. 

Senior Professor Dato’ Dr Khalid credits the students for consistently organising the annual public health campaigns for 14 years in a row. 

“Our pharmacy students’ strong desire to raise awareness about diseases and provide free health tests to all walks of life, saw them bringing these campaigns all over Malaysia.” 

To date, the UCSI Annual Public Health Campaigns have been held in states including Malacca, Pahang and Selangor. 

More than 9,000 members of the public have been positively impacted by these campaigns throughout the years. 

The UCSI University Public Health Campaign is a community project by the Pharmacy Student Association (UCSIUPSA) of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It aims to promote and educate the public on health-related issues and encourage healthy lifestyles. 

The campaign included various health screening tests such as the waist-to-hip ratio measurement, blood pressure tests, body fat tests and blood glucose tests. An interactive session with the public on the safe use of drugs titled, ‘Know Your Drug’ was also held. The talk focused on chemotherapy and its adverse effects. 

Supported by Cancer Research Malaysia, formerly known as Malaysia’s Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation, the campaign also provided breast self-examination demonstration. 

Organised by UCSI’s pharmacy students since 2002, the campaign seeks to help bridge the community-academia divide and to provide an excellent platform for members of the community and students to learn from each other.


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