Isaiah 43:19 says “I am about to do something new…”
As I reflected on this verse I thought it applied to me and my life and my service here in Chad.
Breast cancer is such a terrible thing. It’s almost always beyond cure once we find it here. We have had a few cases where we have found it through breast exams.
Mammography exists here but it’s not practical. Most people don’t know how to read them, and even I’m limited with what I know of it. It’s very expensive too.
We will have to depend on breast exams and teaching women to examine themselves. If we can train one person in each family, we could have that person do breast checks.
My plan is to train maybe four women at G2 and also four women at Dougia. They could do examinations for free or a small charge, and if they have a lump they could be referred to our center at Guinebor 2 and Dougia.
The reason I would like to go to Dougia is there are two people groups that we are currently not reaching here. The Kotoko and Kanembu are those two groups.
Once I have those two teams trained, they will refer back to me, and I will go out to the village myself with the community health team.
The breast exam will only be part of our work in community health and will be part of women’s and children’s care.
We do not have funding for it currently but anyone who has a personal experience with breast cancer or lost a loved one will hopefully be compassionate to these African women whose only hope is this kind of service.
I first developed a hatred for breast cancer in high school when I would go to my high school sweetheart, Alayne Knight’s home and noticed there was something wrong with her mom. I found out that she was fighting breast cancer and had had lots of medical procedures.
This pain shaped my future wife’s childhood and youth because her mother was always suffering.
Alayne even had a premonition that she would die of the same disease. Her mother died at age 43 and Alayne did as well. We lived with her breast cancer for 6 years. She had a lump and two positive nodes of breast cancer. She refused chemotherapy and seemed to have beat it and after her mastectomy and reconstruction, she developed vicious metastasis in her liver.
Cancer took Alayne’s life, but not before she professed her faith in Jesus Christ. I was saved and my commitment to the Lord, and it was real.
Now I’m at the ending of my career, I am 80, and I’ve developed Parkinsons. I’ve been able to still do surgery even though I can’t stand long.
I didn’t expect to be able to come to Chad after all the health issues I’ve faced, but here I am.
This simple method of creating a breast exam system and community care that I am proposing has the potential to save the lives of many women!
I feel like I’m a solider in a the war against breast cancer, and we need others to help in the fight!
Any interest in being involved can be sent to to oubrebert@gmail.com.
No financial donation is too small!
The address is:
CHSC
PO BOX 132
Fruitvale, TX 75127
Thank you for your support!
Dr. Bert Oubre