Madam Juliet Gyamfi

Madam Juliet Gyamfi, CEO of Breast Love Foundation and Beautiful Beneath has over the years been a strong advocate in fighting breast cancer among Ghanaians with passion.

Her drive and enthusiasm as a Professional Nurse and Prosthetist Specialist to fight this canker is as a result of her joining stakeholders to help people to breast cancer.

The Breast Cancer Advocate has track record of empowering women who have been diagnosed with the disease thus igniting a new hope to survivors of this condition.

Background

Born and raised in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, by her father Mr. Nana Gyamfi Ampofo and her mother, Madam Grace Acheampong, she had her basic education at Lutheran Estate Primary School and proceeded to St. Monica’s Secondary School at Mampong in the Ashanti Region.

As a determined lady, she did her sixth form at Tweneboa Kodua Secondary where she successfully completed and undertook her National Service  at Cocoase M/A Primary at Bantama in the Ashanti Region.

Aspired to achieve higher prospects, Madam Juliet proceeded to Valley View University at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region, where she bagged a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.

She later moved to the United States of America and pursued Nursing where she passionately served at most health facilities and rose rising through the ranks to become a Supervisor.

Motivation/ Empowerment

Poised to make an impact in her society and make a change by helping women to discard some unhealthy lifestyle practices that undermine their health, Madam Juliet started a prosthesis shop and the Breast Love Foundation to encourage best practices among women.

Recounting her journey to starting the aforementioned project, Madam Juliet said she had the motivation and inspiration from her daughter abroad.

According to the Breast Cancer Advocate, she had an opportunity to work at a lingerie shop in the United States and had enough space to spend quality time with her daughter.

Narrating the instance, she told The Spectator that, “because of the two jobs, we hardly saw each other, and my daughter one day told me that when she grew up, she would open a boutique and work from 9:00 o’clock in the morning to 5:00 o’clock in the evening to enable her to take care of her children”.

“I have been in Ghana and my daughter’s idea has made me open a Lingerie shop called Beautiful Beneath and here I am now, a strong crusader about breast cancer awareness”, she said

Breast Love Foundation/ Dealing with the menace

The breast cancer awareness champion has been campaigning on the need for early detection of the disease in order to save lives of women who are at risk of getting breast cancer.

Over five years of breast cancer awareness campaign in different regions, Madam Juliet through the Breast Love Foundation has carved a niche for the foundation to serve as a haven for intervention for diagnosed patients and survivors.

The Breast Love Foundation since its inception in 2018 has provided free breast cancer screening and  support to diagnosed patients undergo treatment successfully.

According to the selfless woman, breast cancer screening should not only be done in the month of October but must be done throughout the year.

The Prosthetist Specialist said it was important for women to pay attention to their health and eschew all unhealthy lifestyles that posed risk to them

Admonishment

The Nurse/ Prosthetist has encouraged women not to fear when they are being diagnosed with breast cancer because it is treatable and God would always see them through the treatment stages.

“Do not be afraid to lose your breasts when you have to go through surgeries and have them removed because there is more life after the surgery and there are mastectomy brassieres to help fill the lost breasts”, she said .

She stressed that, Ghanaians and patients should stop attaching spiritual meanings to breast cancer but support breast cancer patients throughout their stages of treatment and pray for them to respond to treatment .

The Prosthetist Specialist assured mastectomy patients to always rely on Beautiful Beneath shops for a very quality mastectomy brassieres to make them feel comfortable on their day-to-day endeavours.

Clarion Call

The married woman with three children again called on all to psychologically and spiritually help people diagnosed with breast cancer and charged men to also examine their breasts in detecting changes that needs medical attention.

Madam Juliet, a devout Christian who fellowships with Methodist Church loves listening to choral music and gospel preaching, reading, and watching Netflix .

The English, Twi and intermediate Spanish speaker said that Breast Love Foundation would always  support women and jokingly said “I have a brassiere shop so if most women lose their breasts, I will not make any sales, feel confident about your body”.

The waakye, fufu and light soup lover called on women to wear right brassiere sizes since they had an implication on women’s health, so one must wear the correct brassiere size in order to prevent spinal disorders as well.

“Be very attentive to any changes that occur on any part of your body and report it to a Physician as soon as possible in order to facilitate early treatment”, the breast cancer advocate stressed.

By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah