Pink Caravan – a movement aimed at promoting breast cancer awareness – has begun trekking it through the country for its fifth year carrying out the Pink Caravan Ride.
His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, inaugurated the launch of the Pink Caravan ride at the Sharjah Equestrian Club.
The ride is composed of 150 experienced horse-riders, who’ll hoof it across all seven emirates on horseback offering up free breast cancer screenings to men and women in over 30 stops throughout the UAE.
To date, the Pink Caravan Ride has travelled over 1,150km, having offered early breast cancer detection examinations for over 34,000 people, of which roughly 23 per cent were men.
Related Story: Six Free Breast Cancer Screening Centers In The UAE
This year’s Pink Caravan Ride will go for a total of 337km, passing through each emirate until wrapping up the tour on March 25 in Abu Dhabi.
Video of the Pink Caravan Ride 2015
Aside from offering up the screenings, Pink Caravan Ride has also visited 84 schools to deliver lessons and lectures about the importance of spotting breast cancer before it’s too late.
Pink Caravan aren’t all just about raising awareness for breast cancer though, they also seek to dispel myths associated with the illness, as well as lobby for the creation of the UAE’s National Cancer Registry while seeking to improve the current standards of screening and treatment within the UAE.
Related Story: What You Need To Know About Breast Cancer
If you fancy getting a screening (and why not, it’s free!), the Pink Caravan Ride will be setting up mobile clinics in hospitals throughout the country, conducting the screenings daily between 9am and 7pm.
If you’re looking to help out, you can sign up as a volunteer on the Pink Caravan website. You can also donate through the site. The money will go towards purchasing state-of-the-art mammography units, training Emiratis to specialise as technicians and radiologists to operate the Caravan’s mobile mammography units, as well as upgrading and equipping breast cancer screening centers in the more remote areas of the UAE.
Photos/Video: pinkcaravan.ae.
