Should a cancer sufferer undergo treatment or pray for God to heal them?
These are some of the questions that panelists answered at the conference.
“…Let us unite against cancer….cancer is the second killer in Canada and in the Black community it’s the first…,” Bayo Oladele, a cancer survivor, co-founder of the Oladele Foundation said during his opening address.
April 23, 2022, The Oladele Foundation hosted Cancer & Faith conference at the Reviera Hotel in Calgary.
Experts, survivors, those going through treatment, community leaders, faith leaders, and community members came together to discuss the challenges the Black community face with cancer.
“….This is a community disease and the answer is a community one…,” Patrick Etokudo, a panelist, who’s father had cancer at 77 and decided against going through chemotherapy but later on became cancer-free.
The nine panelists shared that the key challenges of dealing with cancer and seeking treatment is; stigma from people around the person going through the cancer journey casting a death sentence on them the moment they are diagnosed, cultural challenges preventing people from screening and catching it early, church influences preventing people from seeking treatment rather believing that God will heal them, and overall lack of education, opening cancer discussions like the one at the conference is critical as cancer is considered a taboo topic.
The conference ended with a prayer session and calls for many more sessions.
