In India, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every four minutes while another loses her life to the illness every 13 minutes. Aiming to educate its female employees and service partners about breast cancer, one of Asia’s largest tech-enabled home services marketplaces, Urban Company, tied up with HCG Cancer Chain of Hospitals.

As part of this initiative, oncologists from HCG conducted workshops on self-breast-examination to create awareness on breast cancer. These sensitization workshops were held pan-India for all female employees and partners at Urban Company on 20th and 21st October 2021.

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With the incidence of breast cancer steadily increasing in India, it becomes imperative for women to understand symptoms and be able to self-diagnose the condition.

Urban Company hosted over 500 women employees and service partners from across the country in these sensitization sessions. All attendees were taught to conduct self-examination for breast cancer by renowned oncologists such as Dr Sasikala Prabaharan, Dr Indoo Ammbulkar, Dr Mansi Shah, and Dr Amrita Chakraborty, associated with the HCG Cancer Chain of Hospitals.

Commenting on the initiative, Neha Mathur, SVP – Human Resources at Urban Company, said, “At Urban Company, we care about the well-being of our employees and partners. Breast cancer is becoming an alarming health issue in India with the rising number of cases from across the country. An early diagnosis of breast cancer can save lives, making self-examination an important first step. Through this partnership, we are extending our support to ensure the well-being of our female service professionals across India.”

Dr BS Ajaikumar, Executive Chairman, HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd. said, “We are extremely delighted to collaborate with Urban Company for this Pan-India breast cancer awareness and self-breast examination session on the most opportune occasion of the breast cancer awareness month. Beyond doubt, the most efficient intervention for breast cancer control is early detection, especially given the high incidence of breast cancer among Indian women. This tie-up with Urban Company is yet another manifestation of HCG’s unflinching commitment to serve the larger cause of healthcare with the support of like-minded organizations.”

The sessions were conducted both physically and virtually across cities including Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, and Vadodara.

According to recent estimates by the World Health Organization, 2.3 million women globally were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, with the number of deaths reaching 685,000. Between 2015 and 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer, making it the world’s most prevalent cancer.