Healthcare | Wednesday 23 January, 2019 1:10 am |

The Pink Caravan Ride (PCR) has been dedicated to raising awareness about breast cancer and the importance of early detection across the UAE since 2011. The Friends of Cancer Patients (FOCP) initiative has been offering free medical check-ups and screenings nationwide, and has gone from strength to strength, dispelling misconceptions about breast cancer.

 

To boost its outreach, PCR has carefully nurtured community’s role by engaging thousands of volunteers in their annual campaigns. It has also garnered the strong support of numerous public as well as private sector organisations, most notably, the Sharjah Media Corporation (SMC) and Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) – turning their annual ride in ‘pink’ into a shining symbol of humanitarianism in the UAE.   

 

The incremental boost that Pink Caravan has received each year, with people from all age groups and cultural backgrounds coming forward to help out with the campaign’s myriad requirements, has been one of its biggest accomplishments.    

 

Achievements – quick glance 

PCR has attracted more than 600 medical experts, 770 volunteers, 492 riders, in its eight-year existence. Together, these volunteers have spent more than 311,000 hoursworking for their cancer awareness rides. 

 

The campaign has also offered 56,667 free breast cancer screening, each valued at AED 250, at an overall cost of AED 14,166,750. Additionally, PCR has delivered 2,232 free breast ultrasounds, each worth AED 1,000, in addition to 16,462 free mammograms worth AED 16,462,000. 

 

The overall cost of free medical examinations offered by PCR between 2011–18 is valued at AED 33 million (AED32,860750), which has required 311,646 hours of voluntary work to be offered.

 

Medical volunteers 

Each year, 83 medical experts and nurses worked for 15 hours each day through the 11-day ride. Over eight years, 664 medical practitioners from all nationalities have volunteered for 109,560 hours, offering high—quality free breast cancer medical check-ups, screenings as well as awareness advice on breast cancer symptoms and prevention. 

 

Community and riding volunteers

Since 2011, the Pink Caravan Ride has been supported by 770 volunteers. Each of them have dedicated their service to community for 14 hours, each day of the 11-day ride, clocking a total of 154 hours each person per ride. The Pink Caravan’s unsung heroes have dedicated a total of 118, 580 volunteer hours. From setting up refreshments pit stops for the volunteering equines to engaging community members who have come out on the streets to see the pink march of hope, these volunteers are the campaign’s unsung heroes who serve selflessly towards achieving PCR’s goal of heightening breast cancer awareness in all sections of the UAE community. 

 

When it comes to the UAE’s equine community who volunteer for this noble cause, the support to PCR through the years has been truly overwhelming. In the first seven years of the ride, 492 riders dedicated 70,499 hours, horse-backing from one emirate to the next, and travelling over 1,700 kms to bring people together and educate them about the risks of breast cancer. 

 

In 2018, when PCR hosted its 8thedition, 91 more riders joined the campaign and dedicated 7,007 hours to this cause, bringing their total volunteering time to 77,506 hours in eight years.

 

Administrative and supervisory volunteers 

Administrators and supervisors supporting this pan-UAE campaign have been the lifeblood of this campaign, taking upon themselves the gigantic task of cross-emirate coordination to ensure there’s not a single hiccup on the way of the brave advocates of pink hope. 

 

An average of 15 administrators and members of regulatory bodies come together to hold 15, five-hour meetings each year, and ultimately dedicating 75 hours in one year and a total of 6,000 hours in eight years, ensuring the services and support to not only the PCR team, but also that which is required by people during their medical examinations are easily available to them.

 

Reem Bin Karam, Chairperson of the Pink Caravan Ride Higher Steering Committee, said: “In its eight-year, the Pink Caravan Ride has only received increasing love and support from its dedicated team of staff and volunteers. Together, we have done much to change a cultural stereotype based on fear and hesitation to growing awareness, which is testified by the fact that the UAE community today has a much better understanding of breast cancer, than it did eight years ago. The result of growing community awareness is also evident in the increasing number of women who come forward every year to volunteer in PCR and also have themselves checked.”

 

BinKaram added: “On a humanitarian level, the Pink Caravan has been successful in encouraging the values of community service, philanthropy and tolerance in people; all deeply embedded in the ways of the UAE’s leadership. This is a significant qualitative milestone PCR has reached in eight years. Our past efforts boosted by the UAE’s generous and giving volunteers has only encouraged us to look forward to the future editions of this campaign. For 2019, we vow to continue our efforts in establishing a well-educated community aware of the ways to prevent and fight cancer by instilling in them a sense of personal responsibility towards self-examinations as well as periodic medical check-ups ”.

 

PCR is organised under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and his wife, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Founder and Royal Patron of FoCP. Over the past eight years, PCR’s unparalleled efforts have been instrumental to fighting breast cancer in the UAE.