‘Dedicated breast cancer hospital to be functional soon’

The first-ever dedicated breast cancer hospital in Pakistan would be functional in the next two to three months, announced Omer Aftab, the chief executive of Pink Ribbon.

Speaking at a theatre evening held at a local hotel on Sunday, Aftab said that this year Pink Ribbon, an organisation that supports breast cancer patients, created awareness about the disease with the help of the ‘Save the Ninth’ campaign, which was aimed to save every ninth woman in the country who is at high risk of breast cancer.

He said that globally around 40,000 women die of the disease every year and stressed the need to break the taboo around the subject. He added that after the completion of the hospital in Lahore, another one would also be built in Karachi.

Speaking about her own battle against cancer, eminent writer Haseena Moin said she never thought she would see the colour pink at the other end of life. She explained that her doctors were very kind and the young people who helped her get through the phase and told her on the last day of her treatment that they did not want to see her on the bed again, signalling their well wishes for her health.

“I believe diagnosing [of breast cancer] is very important and if a woman does find out, there is no shame in getting treatment because if it starts early enough, her life can be saved,” she said.

Pink Ribbon collaborated with theatre artists to stage a short performance on the occasion. Manto’s famous short story, ‘Baadshahat Ka Khatma’ was adapted by Bi Gul and directed by Khaled Ahmad for the evening.

The play revolves around two characters, a man named Manmohan (played by Tariq Raja) and an unnamed woman (Kaif Ghaznavi), who develop a relationship of sorts over the phone.

The play starts off with Manmohan sleeping on a desk in his friend’s office when he receives a phone call from a woman who starts talking to him about his life. Manmohan who doesn’t believe in wasting time in pretension honestly tells bits about his life that he has been living on the streets of Mumbai and leans onto his friends for survival. However, he has great aesthetics and is fond of photography and gets mesmerised by the voice of the woman who sings for him. The two continue their phone conversations over time.

Despite thinking that he would not get attached, Manmohan realises that he has fallen for her when his friend informs him that he would have to vacate the office which meant letting go of the telephone connecting him to the woman.

To maintain his relationship, he requests to meet her and they both agree to see each other soon. However, when the woman tells her that she won’t be able to call him for a while, he gets incredibly ill owing to separation anxiety.

Passing a day waiting for her, he gets sicker and when the phone bell rings, he mutters a ‘hello’ as the woman tells him the number to remain in contact later. He collapses and dies. Both actors did a wonderful job especially Kaif when she sang Ghalib’s Ghazals beautifully.