Bianca Umali leads outreach to provide pap smear, breast exam services to women
Bianca Umali. Image: Instagram/@bianxa
In celebration of Women’s Month, actress Bianca Umali spearheaded an outreach, bringing access to healthcare services including pap smear and breast examination for women in Cardona, Rizal.
Umali shared a video of the event through her Instagram page where she and the GMA Kapuso Foundation assisted at least 100 women in the area, including “tinapa” (smoked fish) vendors, in acquiring free healthcare services.
“Nandito tayo ngayon para bigyan ng regalo at serbisyong medical ang isang daang kababaihan bilang pagkilala sa kanila na kahit mahirap ang buhay ay patuloy at patas silang lumalaban […] Importante po ang pap smear sa mga kababaihan,” the actress said in the video.
(We are here today to give gifts and medical services to one hundred women in recognition of their continued hard work, even though life is difficult […] The pap smear is important for women.)
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As defined by Mayo Clinic, a pap smear is a procedure that involves “collecting cells from the cervix for testing, often used to look for cervical cancer.”
In her caption, Umali stressed the importance of the outreach for every woman, writing, “Ang aming layunin? Ang paigtingin ang pagpapahalaga sa kalusugan at medikal na mga pangangailngan ng mga kababaihan. SALUDO PO AKO SA MGA BABAENG PILIPINO! BABAE TAYO, HINDI BABAE LANG.”
(Our goal? To increase the sense of importance of the health and medical needs of women. I SALUTE FILIPINO WOMEN! WE ARE WOMEN, NOT JUST WOMEN.)
On the other hand, breast cancer awareness is close to Umali’s heart after she lost her mother to the disease when she was five years old.
“I do not want another little girl or another woman to lose her mother to breast cancer or to go through the disease herself without any knowledge, awareness and hope,” she wrote on Instagram in 2023.
