As part of activities marking its 18th anniversary, the OB Lulu Briggs Foundation has sponsored surgeries for 100 patients of uterine fibroid.

The foundation was founded in 2001 to consolidate the corporate social responsibility efforts of the founder of Moni Pulo, OB Lulu-Briggs, who passed on last December.

Mr Lulu-Briggs’ widow, Seinye Lulu-Briggs, is the chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation.

Speaking in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday during a knowledge event to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the foundation, a consultant obstetrician/gynecologist with the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rosemary Ogu, said although many studies have been conducted on the unwanted growth in women’s wombs, the causes are yet to be determined.

The medical doctor identified genetic and hormonal factors among contributory causes.

Her paper, “Raising Awareness about Uterine Fibroids – Get Informed; Take Action” was the lead presentation of the health awareness/sensitization seminar on uterine fibroids, which OB Lulu-Briggs Foundation used to kick-start its free fibroid surgery to 100 patients.

The physician said uterine fibroid is more common among Africans and counseled women that it is better to have fibroids surgery here “because more of the surgeries are done here.”

She confirmed the fear that fibroids could grow again in a woman’s womb after it has been removed surgically.

“When you are operated for fibroids and the womb is left empty by not getting pregnant, the fibroids can come back after three years,” she said.

She also said a virgin womb, that is, a womb that has never carried a baby, can play host to fibroids growth.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of OB Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Mrs Lulu-Briggs, who is also a pastor, said she founded the organisation on September 21, 2001, “to honour, celebrate, structure and institutionalise the prolific giving of my husband, High Chief (Dr.) O.B. Lulu-Briggs, whose love and commitment to humanity shone through his charitable and philanthropic acts, that broadly categorized, equipped, empowered and enabled people, particularly the most vulnerable and under-served, to live full, purposeful and dignified lives.”

Mrs Lulu-Briggs, who was represented by her spokesman, Oraye St Franklyn, noted that this year’s anniversary was the first after the demise of her husband who passed on last December 27.

She revealed that in this medical largesse, 100 women who require the surgery but cannot afford the expensive cost of fibroid removal surgery would undergo the procedure free of charge in partnership with the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital and the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

On why the foundation decided to focus on fibroid this year, the coordinator of programmes of OB Lulu Briggs Foundation, Ineba Tongkam, said it was borne from an experience brought about by the foundation’s recent free medical mission.

According to her, “the initiative for raising awareness about uterine fibroids came about as a result of the experience we encountered during the Foundation’s recent Free Medical Mission in Bakana, Rivers State, from May 20 to 24, 2019.”