Event Details: The Surrey Newton Rotary Club in collaboration Pacific Oral Heath Society offered a free
Oral Cancer Screening Clinic for the community on Sunday, September 11, 2016. The clinic was open from 9:00am to
5:00pm at the new Pacific Oral Health Center building located at 15850 24 Avenue Surrey. This clinic was free to the
public and anyone was able to register for a screening appointment.
Event Summary: The goal of the clinic was to help reduce the barriers to oral cancer screening and support the prevention and early detection of oral cancer and pre-cancer. This event was a great success as over 260 people pre-registered for the clinic and over 200 patients were examined by the dental team. The data collected by the Pacific Oral Health Society (POHS), indicated that 20 people were found to be at high rick of having oral cancer and 5 cases showed positive signs of oral cancer. This clinic could not have been possible without the generous commitment of the POHS dental team as they volunteered over $50,000 of their time and services for this clinic to be offered free of charge to the community.
The Rotary Club of Surrey-Newton is grateful to the media team for the willingness to include us in media coverage and possible save the lives of 25 individuals who were not aware of being at risk for oral cancer. As with many of our Rotary projects, our goal is to continue this clinic on an annual basis.
Goal of the event: To reduce the barriers to oral cancer screening and the prevention and early detection of oral cancer
and pre-cancer. As with many other Rotary projects, our goal is to continue this clinic on an annual basis.
Why is oral cancer screening is important: Some of the highest oral cancer rates in the world are in South
Asian countries due to habits such as chewing betel quid and smokeless tobacco, in addition to smoking and alcohol use. Data
from the BC Cancer Registry has shown a much higher incidence of oral cancer in South Asian women and men, than in the
general population. South Asians currently account for 10% of the population in BC and with anticipated further
immigration a corresponding increase in oral cancer is expected. It is timely to increase public awareness and is a great
opportunity to provide an oral cancer screening intervention and community awareness program tailored for this high-risk
population.
Rotary Background: The Rotary Club of Surrey-Newton, District 5050 was founded in 2010, and has successfully
supported local and international projects. Our work focuses in areas including improving basic education and literacy,
helping communities develop, preventing diseases, providing access to clean water and sanitation and enhancing maternal
and child health.