US actress visits Kosovo to raise awareness of women's cancer

16/10/2008

Hollywood actress Fran Drescher visited Kosovo to urge an aggressive fight against women's cancer.

(US Embassy in Pristina -- 16/10/08; Women's eNews)

US State Department Women's Health Issues Envoy Fran Drescher went to Kosovo to raise women's awareness of cancer. [Laura Hasani]

Women need to take responsibility for their own health and fight cancer, said US actress Fran Drescher on a two-day visit to Kosovo last week.

"Kosovo, as a new country, must be focused on raising the awareness of women regarding this disease, because it's easier and cheaper to treat a cancer caught early," said Drescher, who spent October 7th through 9th in Kosovo as an envoy of the US State Department for women's health issues.

She was also representing the Balkans Breast Cancer Initiative, a partnership founded late last year 2007 by the then-US Office in Pristina and Kosovo healthcare institutions and leaders.

"I am seriously concerned about women's rights ... Women need to take control of their health," she said following a meeting with members of the Women of Kosovo's Parliamentary Group, whom she asked to do more in the war on cancer.

Drescher herself overcame uterine cancer. "I needed two years and eight different doctors to treat the cancer right," she said, urging women to undergo screening in order to ensure early detection of any malignancies.

Best known for starring in the US TV comedy series The Nanny, Drescher had a busy itinerary during her short visit to the fledgling country. She interviewed with ten media outlets, including several serving the Kosovo Serb market, and taped an introduction to a documentary on women's health that aired on Kosovo TV on October 8th. She met with the Women's Caucus of the Kosovo Assembly and with young Serb women in north Mitrovica.

Drescher ended her stay in Kosovo with a visit to Camp Bondsteel, where she met troops who had either survived cancer or had family members who had contracted cancer.

The neglect of women's health is a serious issue in Kosovo, where women with medical problems must battle a combination of economic and social barriers.

With maybe three reliable mammogram machines in the entire country, bribes and delays rampant in the public health sector and private medical care too expensive for the average Kosovo citizen, female patients tend to discover their cancer late, when treatment is more difficult and less likely to succeed. In addition, some patients fear surgery or are too embarrassed to admit having breast cancer.

Kosovo physician Avdyl Krasniqi believes the breast cancer situation is "probably" worse than in the EU, in which the disease is the second leading cause of female mortality and afflicts one out of every ten women. The country lacks a central cancer registry to provide statistics for comparison.

Blerta Foniqi-Kabashi contributed to this article.