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Chike Okoli Foundation celebrates World Heart Day with free health screening

By Tayo Oredola
01 October 2015   |   2:33 am
With the vision of building a healthy and more prosperous nation free of cardiovascular disease and poverty, the Chike Okoli Foundation in collaboration with the Dangote Foundation and Iyaloja of Lagos on Tuesday organised a free health screening at the computer village, Ikeja, Lagos.
Chike Okoli Foundation in collaboration with the Dangote Foundation and Iyaloja of Lagos on Tuesday organised a free health screening at the computer village, Ikeja, Lagos. PHOTO: TAYO OREDOLA

Chike Okoli Foundation in collaboration with the Dangote Foundation and Iyaloja of Lagos on Tuesday organised a free health screening at the computer village, Ikeja, Lagos. PHOTO: TAYO OREDOLA

With the vision of building a healthy and more prosperous nation free of cardiovascular disease and poverty, the Chike Okoli Foundation in collaboration with the Dangote Foundation and Iyaloja of Lagos on Tuesday organised a free health screening at the computer village, Ikeja, Lagos.

The screening, which comprised of the Body Mass Index (BMI) test, the Blood Sugar Test and Blood Pressure Test was held to mark the World Heart Day, which is on September 29 of every year.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Healthy heart choices for everyone, everywhere”.

he foundation, which was established in 2006, is in memory of the late Chike Okoli, who died at age 25 as a result of undetected coronary artery disease.

For this reason, the foundation’s core aim is to ensure that every young person is aware of cardiovascular diseases, so that they will not die young like Okoli.

The Programmes Coordinator of the foundation, Beauty Alfred, told The Guardian that this year marks the 8th Chike Okoli week to commemorate the world heart day.

The event, which is a weeklong activity, visited so many markets, because the target for this year is to screen 5,000 people, she said.

Alfred related the current increase in cardiovascular disease among Nigerians to lifestyle, stress and smoking among others. She further explained that people do not diet well and lack of exercise as well.
“Nigerians are full of stress, and many people do not detect it until something terrible happens,” she remarked.

On why the foundation is concentrating on marketplaces this year, Alfred said people in the market most of the time do not have enough resources and are always busy to go for regular check ups.

She also said people who have any issues in the course of the screening are referred to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), since the foundation has partnership with them, so our patients can be discounted.

Some of the market people our correspondent interacted with had mixed feelings, as some were happy it was free and gave them opportunity to know their health status, others showed concerns that they just disclose people’s ailments to them and do not give medication.

One Mr. Michael who expressed that concern said, they just exposed someone’s disease, and would not give solutions, these people will start to think and eventually die because they can not afford hospital bills”. Therefore we are appealing to the government to support this foundation to provide free drugs to argument next time.

Some of the health officials at the various stages of the screening expressed concerns to the imbalance average rates of more women with high BMI and sugar level.

“So far, majority of the men we have screened are ok as compared to women”, one of the officials said.

He then attribute the high BMI and sugar level to sedentary lives, improper eating habits and perhaps motherhood.

Our correspondent observed as market people and passer byes curiously trooped in to know their status.

Alfred urged the government to put in more efforts in terms of public health clinics and hospitals, to assist people who cannot afford some of these medical care. Since poverty and economic factor is a major contributor to the plight of most Nigerians.

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