LAHORE: More than 100,000 college students will be sensitised to breast cancer during a countrywide youth awareness campaign launched by Pink Ribbon in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission.

Aimed at marking October 2016 as the breast cancer awareness month, the campaign will involve nearly 200 colleges and universities across Pakistan to reach out to over 100,000 young girls, equipping them with necessary knowledge about the disease, said a release on Monday.

`As the ratio of breast cancer in girls has alarmingly increased in last few decades, the campaign is aimed at educating the girls about prevention and early diagnosis,` said the release while quoting Pink Ribbon Chief Executive Omer Af tab.

In the past four years, such awareness campaigns had been able to successfully reach out to over 1,050,000 women and 540,000 female students with knowledge and techniques to detect breast cancer at an early stage. Since the campaign started, there had been a 30 per cent increase in patient turnover at breast cancer clinics nationwide, he said.

`The campaign aims at creating widespread aware-ness while bringing it in mainstream to urge policy makers to take up this issue as a priority. The gravity of the situation still requires more focused and systematic approach to address the issue of increasing incidences of breast cancer in the country.

Our campaign aims to disseminate the hope for a cure to the maximum number of women in the shortest possible time,` he said.

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Adviser Ms Shaheen Khan described breast cancer as a major social issue, which needed immediate measures. The HEC has been working with Pink Ribbon since 2011, empowering young girls with the knowledge and techniques to detect breast cancer at early stage as the disease has been registering an alarming increase in girls, she said.

`We must realise that the problem is very close to our own homes and needs a concerted and consistent approach to be dealt with.

We will use all possible resources for the success of the campaign and efforts will be made for conducting meaningful research in this area. The HEC and Pink Ribbon will form a working group for need assessment and formulation of action plan for more campaign and research work,` said Ms Khan.