A decade of dedicated service
This year Mithuruwela, the Cancer Support Network celebrates ten years of service to those affected by cancer.
The organisation was established in 2005 by two breast cancer survivors, Professor Ryhana Raheem, Emeritus Professor, Open University of Sri Lanka and Attorney-at –Law Mala Thalayasingam.
Its founder members included Attorney-at-Law Suhenthiran Thalayasingam, the late Sirancee Gunawardene, former Principal of Ladies College, Kiran Dhanapala and the late Lal Kadirgamathamby.
Among its major objectives was support for cancer awareness, especially in the national languages and since inception, Mithuruwela has worked closely with the Medical Education Unit of the National Cancer Institute at Maharagama to print and publish thousands of brochures on cancer and related topics in Sinhala and Tamil. These brochures are handed out free to patients who register at the NCI.
In 2009, Mithuruwela’s efforts at enhancing knowledge about cancer were made more contemporary with the production of DVDs with the support of the Media Centre at the Open University of Sri Lanka.
Two DVDs have now been created-one in collaboration with the late Dr Henry Jayasena where the renowned actor speaks of his battle with cancer, and the other, on breast cancer, in collaboration with Dr Neelamani Paranagama, former Director of the National Cancer Control Programme.
These DVDs too are given out free to hospitals and other institutions which request them.
Befriending of cancer patients and care-givers forms another major objective, and training of Mithuruwela volunteers for befriending was supported by Nalini Ellawala, former director of the Sri Lanka Sumithrayo.
Mithuruwela’s befriending activities began at ‘Shanthi Niwasa’ a transit home in Maharagama established by Mrs Leilani Schaffter which provides free accommodation and other facilities to patients and care-givers from remote districts of Sri Lanka.
Mithuruwela volunteers now also visit the wards at the NCI and befriend patients at ’Shantha Sevana’, the home run by the Cancer Society of Sri Lanka.
Since 2012, the group has expanded its activities to CCC House, the transit home built and sponsored by the CCC Foundation.
CCC House provides facilities for children as well as adults, and Mithuruwela has focused its work here on educational activities for children who have to miss school because of their treatment regimes.
In 2011, Mithuruwela began on yet another journey when it decided to take its campaign of cancer awareness into regions outside Colombo.
Supported at the start by a small grant from the World Health Organization, Mithuruwela has now conducted awareness sessions in almost every province in the country, and locations visited include Alawwa, Badulla, Batticaloa,Elpitiya, Eravur, Gomarankadawela,Ingiriya, Jaffna, Nuwara Eliya , Punduloya, Pussellawa, Puttalam and Trincomalee.
These sessions which commence with survivor members speaking frankly about their experience with breast cancer and lead into medical aspects of cancer and early detection and prevention are conducted with support from either the local Medical Officer of Health or a doctor from the Non-Communicable Disease Unit.
Staff from the Dept of Community Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colombo, and more recently, from the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health have also provided assistance for this initiative.
Mithuruwela is keenly aware that all this work accomplished over the past ten years would not have been possible if not for the support it had received- from corporate bodies, from banks, from other NGOs, universities, and the general public, most especially individuals whose life has been touched by cancer in some way or another.
The mainspring of all initiatives has been the dedicated group of volunteer members who have given of their time and effort to raise awareness about cancer and to help Sri Lankans affected by this disease.