WINDHOEK – The Cancer Association of Namibia (CAN)’s five-kilometre family fun walk in Windhoek attracted over 100 people, who braced the windy Saturday morning in support of cancer.
The five-kilometre fun walk started at Deutscher Turn und Sportverein (DTS) sports field all the way to Suiderhof and back to the DTS sports field.
The project coordinator for National Cancer Walk of the CAN, Suann van Heerden, in an interview with New Era explained that the national cancer walk is one of the association’s fundraising campaigns held nationwide.
“We started at 7 in the morning so we are very thankful to that they (people who participated) committed their time and made the effort to join us and its quite windy today. Rehoboth will have their fun walk for cancer in September and the other towns also later in the year. But all that information will be available in the media,” she said.
Last year, 12 towns participated in the National Cancer Walk, said Van Heerden. This past Saturday, Windhoek and Tsumeb held their family fun walk while Swakopmund and Walvis Bay had theirs the previous weekend.
The aim of the National Cancer Walk aim is to create awareness on making healthier lifestyle choices, said Van Heerden.
“Not everybody can afford organic food but small changes in your daily routine like walking around the block or cutting out a little bit more sugar out of your diet will definitely help you stay healthier when you age,” she explained.
The funds raised through the national cancer are used to sustain the cancer manual project and also to create awareness on different types of cancer in Namibia, added Van Heerden.
“This is a fundraising event to sustain our cancer manual programmes and that’s a booklet that was compiled in 2016. It contains all the common types of cancer in Namibia, how they start and seeking for help as well as prevention,” explained Van Heerden.
She also said: “These booklets are handed out when we do our national outreach campaigns, when we do our street collections we hand it out to the community at no cost and until now we have handed out about 50 000 of these booklets from the far north as Zambezi to the far south of Aussenkehr.”
The booklet is currently only available in English, said Van Heerden. The Martyrs for Christ was one of the organisations that took part in the Windhoek fun walk on Saturday.
Martyrs for Christ is an interdenominational organisation dedicated to serving Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith. The Director of Martyrs for Christ, Kobus Hanekom, when asked why they took part in the walk said: “It’s for cancer. We participated to support the Cancer Association of Namibia.”