Member of Parliament for San Fernando West and Minister of Education, Dr. Michael Dowlath is advocating for teaching cancer awareness to secondary school students.
He was speaking at the South Cancer Support Group’s ‘Hope in Every Step’ 5K at Skinner Park on Sunday.
As he expressed his support for healthier choices, Member of Parliament for San Fernando West and Education Minister, Dr. Michael Dowlath called for greater cancer awareness among secondary school students.
“As the MP for San Fernando West, I have advocated with this group that we could start in all the schools in San Fernando. I want to congratulate the Cancer Support Group at Naparima Girls’ High School. Let’s give them a round of applause. They are the first in South and I have asked them to mentor all the other schools, especially in San Fernando West.”
He noted that with over 2 hundred thousand students in the schools along with parents and guardians using the schools will reach a wide cross section of the population.
“Through the education system, we want to affect at least a million people in terms of ensuring that we understand how nutrition, how physical activity and that mindset of being able to include physical activity in your daily schedule.”
Chief Executive Officer of Super Nova, the organization which helped the South Cancer Support Group and the T&T Medical Association manage the 5K described the event as a success.
“We have also been able to surpass the initial, the initial expectation of 4 hundred patrons. So we are at 7 hundred and 50, which is our capacity. We actually have people today calling to be to be a part of it. That on its own is a tremendous success.”
The purpose of the event was to raise funds to allow more people to access cancer screening tests.