Punjab govt want to rope in Yuvraj for cancer awareness

Chandigarh: The Punjab government is keen to rope in cricketer Yuvraj Singh as the brand ambassador of their campaign to spread awareness about cancer.

The star all rounder, who himself fought with the dreaded disease, is being approached for a partnership, a senior official of Punjab Health and Medical Research department said here on Friday. The Punjab government is working on a partnership with "Youwecan" for this purpose. The state government will commence the drive with a mega cancer awareness and screening camps in all 22 district civil hospitals on September 28 and 29, the official said. Youwecan will be awareness partner with Yuvraj being the awareness ambassador for these camps. Yuvraj will feature in the printed collaterals like posters, brochures and banners, the official said. Besides, Yuvraj will use his social media channels to promote the screening camps for cancer, the official added. To promote and generate awareness about these cancer awareness camps, Yuvraj had volunteered to attend the meetings with the state government. A special campaign door-to-door cancer detection survey in Punjab lanuched in the recent past had revealed that the incidence of cancer in Punjab is higher than accepted national and international average. A comparison with WHO figures regarding the incidence of cancer reveals that 90 people in a population of one lakh are suffering from cancer in Punjab. While 215 people per lakh have died of cancer, another 318 per lakh are suspected of suffering from the disease, the survey revealed. PTI