Pink Ribbon Walk, which promotes breast cancer awareness, draws 2,300 participants

SINGAPORE - Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah, who took part in a 13km walk from Marina Bay Sands to East Coast Park on Sunday (Dec 26) to raise awareness about breast cancer, has a personal story linked to the disease.

Her sister died from the condition in the 1990s.

"The degree of awareness wasn't so high then - you don't really think about diseases when you're young, it's only when it strikes someone close to you or you have an encounter with it.

"So it seemed really important to me to raise awareness for this illness," said Ms Indranee, who is patron of the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF) which organised the Pink Ribbon Walk 2021. The event ends on Dec 31.

Now in its 13th year, the event has taken on a virtual format and has about 2,300 participants so far.

The proceeds from the walk will support BCF programmes and services as well as the new Breast Cancer Centre in Sin Ming which had its soft opening in October, said BCF president Staphnie Tang.

BCF reaches out to community centres, associations, and corporate companies to hold awareness talks and promote screenings all year round. It also urges women to do breast self-examination via digital posters in heartland lift lobbies, added Ms Tang.

One in 13 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, a stark contrast to one in 45 women 50 years ago, according to the 50 Years Of Cancer Registration monograph published in 2019 by the Singapore Cancer Registry

In February, the World Health Organisation reported that breast cancer overtook lung cancer as the most common form of cancer, accounting for nearly 12 per cent of new cancer cases each year worldwide.

The rise in breast cancer incidence is partly due to increased awareness and more women going for screenings, said BCF medical advisory chair, Dr Wong Chiung-Ing.

Malay women have the lowest take-up rate for mammogram checks. Though 94.4 per cent of them are aware of mammography, only 28.9 per cent of them have gone for one in the last two years, according to statistics from the National Population Health Survey in 2019.

This number is lowest in comparison with 40.1 per cent for Chinese women and 41 per cent for Indian women.

Another reason for higher breast cancer incidence is lifestyle choices such as diets high in fat, increased alcohol intake and a lack of physical activity, said Dr Wong.

"Higher endogenous oestrogen levels are (also) associated with higher breast cancer risk," she added, noting that this occurs in instances like early first occurrence of menstruation, late menopause, increasing age of first full-term pregnancy and the lack of breastfeeding.