Black Mountain Mining (BMM) helped more than 600 vulnerable people, who have no medical aid, receive free life-saving early cancer detection with PinkDrive/MBTM from 5 to 8 September this year.

A mobile clinic, funded by BMM, stopped at Pofadder, Pella, and Aggeneys to provide local people with mammograms, breast examinations, pap smears, prostate screening, and education about HIV/Aids, tuberculosis (TB), and cancer.

Noelene Kotschan, CEO and founder of PinkDrive, is certainly impressed with BMM’s social investment:
“What an amazing, caring organization – not only in terms of its staff but their families and the local communities from which it draws its resources. We covered more than 4 000 kilometers. Everyone was exhausted, but we know we have made a difference.”

Christo Witbooi, Manager:
Corporate Affairs and Stakeholder Relations for Vedanta Zinc International, supports this initiative because it shows BMM’s commitment to host communities.
“We are committed to improving the quality of life of the people living in the communities in which we operate.”

The local and provincial governments, as well as the South African National Aids Council, were involved in the campaign.

More than 100 000 South Africans are diagnosed with cancer every year, according to Dr. Sudeshen Naidoo, the PinkDrive oncologist. She says the top five are breast, cervical, colorectal, and prostate cancer, as well as Kaposi sarcoma.

“People with HIV/Aids have a higher risk of developing cervical cancer, Kaposi sarcoma, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which are Aids-defining conditions. Unfortunately, the majority of patients in South Africa are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease due to several factors, including lack of education in communities and constrained government resources. Government’s current waiting list for cervical cancer treatment – chemotherapy and radiation – is about three to four months.”