Dr Liana Roodt is a Cape Town surgeon offering women battling with Breast Cancer in the public health sector, free surgery to help reduce the waiting period.
Cape Town, South Africa (28 March 2017) – Dr Liana Roodt is making a huge change for women that are battling breast cancer in the public health sector. She started her programme ‘Project Flamingo’ at Groote Schuur Hospital, and it later grew in popularity and has also started at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.
The doctor was distressed by the heartbreaking, stretched out and often chaotic journey that breast cancer patients faced in the public health sector. These women were subjected to extremely long waiting periods for surgeries, sometimes waiting up to 12 weeks.
Dr Liana decided to perform “catch-up” surgeries to help alleviate some of the waiting periods. AmaBele Belles Dragonboat Racing Team was the first to pledge towards the programme and help women in need.
“Joining forces, the AmaBele Belles’ Project Flamingo has subsequently grown so fast that literally hundreds of women have been touched by the project since its launch in 2010.”
Thanks to Project Flamingo, the waiting time for surgery is now at 2-4 weeks at Groote Schuur, and they hope to see similar results at Tygerberg soon!
Funds raised for Project Flamingo go towards offering surgeries, paying for theatre time and nursing staff. The surgeries are a great help to the public health sector’s backlog. Another side of the project is ‘Pamper Packs’; these are filled with items for the newly diagnosed woman.
“Every Wednesday a panel of expert clinicians, including surgeons, oncologists, pathologists and radiologists meet with approximately 20 newly diagnosed patients to discuss their diagnosis and treatment plan.”
“This is a life-changing and traumatic afternoon for these women – and our pamper packs is an attempt to keep their feminine spirit alive. These pamper packs contain some bathroom essentials, a snack, magazines, an axillary pillow and drain bag as well as educational material on breast cancer that they can bring along to hospital when they come back for their surgeries.”
The pamper packs cost around R 65.00 to be made up, but the project also accepts product donations that can be added into the packs for the woman.
Bobby, a judge on ‘The Voice’ and his sister Karlien, are currently raising funds for Project Flamingo, so far they have raised R 75,335.00. They have eight days left so if you would like to donate, you can do so via Bobby and Karlien, or you can donate directly to Project Flamingo.
The funds will go towards helping women gain access to, potentially life-saving, free surgery.
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