Bushell’s Morning Tea event.

Late presentation for cancer treatment is one of the biggest challenges facing medical authorities.

It was revealed at the Bushell’s Biggest Morning Tea that there has been an increase in patients turning up for treatment in the later stages of cancer.

Colonial War Memorial Hospital Consultant Neurologist, Dr. Rajeev Patel says early treatment is the best chance of treating all types of cancer, and this can only be achieved through awareness.

“We getting a lot of stages three and four in the last two decades, but what this event does is that it creates awareness out in the public. The signs and symptoms of cancer and that is what we’re really wanting to throw out to the people out there through these events that what is cancer, what are the signs and symptoms and treatments for it.”

He says every month delayed in cancer treatment raises the risk of death by 10 percent.

The Fiji Cancer Society’s Bushells Biggest Morning Tea helps raise funds for awareness.