Door-to-door sales people were once getting the public aware of a product by pushing it onto their doorstep. These days we may be smug and immune to the big sell, but thus we may be turning our backs on our health as well.

For just as traditional sales people once packed their cars with goods and began knocking on doors, the Association of Volunteers Against Cancer (OEKK) has been engaged, in recent months, in a door-to-door nationwide awareness campaign that aspires to inform women on 'female' forms of cancer. Taking the disease out of the office and into communities and homes is the goal sought, together with the Elena maternity hospital on funds provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Since 1998 the association has been providing Athens women information on cancer in the form of public talks and seminars. Moreover, it has been organizing tests on-site and collaborating with local groups, municipalities, church organizations, volunteer associations and education centres. This year the group expands its reach to even include two Dodecanese island destinations.

Fighting relentless figures
About 4,500 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in Greece, out of which 1,800 pass away as a result of the disease. Experts insist, however, that early detection can reduce numbers by half. All it takes is informing women on how to examine themselves and where and when to get tested by experts. Furthermore, providing opportunities for women in remote communities to be informed and get tested in situ is of the utmost importance.

Battling the myths and stereotypes that surround cancer requires a massive task force. The Association of Volunteers Against Cancer, founded in 1976, today consists of 620 active members and 165 specially trained volunteers. Volunteer training programmes are held each year 'building' this vital resource out of recovered cancer patients. In Pireas' Metaxa Hospital, for example, a group of association volunteers are on site making coffee, offering biscuits and an eager, friendly ear to inpatients; they also run a lending library, so that books can fill in the long hours of a hospital stay.

Spreading knowledge
The nationwide campaign brings together gynaecologists, surgeons, psychiatrists and social workers from the Hellenic Association of Women with Breast Cancer. All these specialists provide their expertise through talks, lectures, round-table discussions and seminars with the aim of furthering the public's education on all aspects of prevention and timely diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer.

The campaign this year kicked off in Galaxidi, where local women were given the opportunity to sit for a Pap Test and undergo a breast screening. The gypsy communities in the western Athens areas of Zefyri and Ilio, alongside those of Corinth, were the campaign's target throughout the month of June.

In September, the isles of Symi and Kastellorizo will be visited and women invited to undergo tests. The west Peloponnesos town of Pyrgos - and specifically its gypsy population - will be offered talks in October, while women of Lavrio in Attica will be informed and tested in November. The visits will concurrently host discussions with local communities and, where seen fit, approaches will be made door to door.