Laura Bush launches drive with Saudi to fight breast cancer

RIYADH: US First Lady Laura Bush on Tuesday launched a joint drive with Saudi Arabia to fight breast cancer on the second leg of a Middle East tour aimed at spreading awareness of the disease.   

Bush, whose trip is partly designed to help restore Washington's image in the region, battered by the US-led invasion of Iraq, praised the women she has met during visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.   

"The one thing that I have been very impressed with are women in the UAE and women here that I've had the chance to meet so far in Saudi Arabia," Bush said after touring a cancer screening centre in Riyadh.   

Flanked by her female guide, Dr Huda Abdul Karim, who was clad in the traditional long black robe known as the abaya which covers head and face -- except for the eyes -- Bush described the women she met as 'educated' and 'interested in working with women on issues like breast cancer'.   

Bush wore a navy blue trouser-suit with a navy blue and yellow scarf around the shoulders. Visiting female dignitaries are exempted from wearing the abaya, part of the strict dress code in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. Bush flew into a Riyadh air base from Dubai, greeted by Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, son of the Saudi monarch and an honorary chairman of the Saudi Cancer Society.    The prince later signed a memorandum of understanding under which Saudi Arabia joined the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research to which the UAE and Jordan are already party.   

Jordan will be the last stop on Bush's tour ending Friday. It also includes a stop Wednesday in Kuwait, which like the three other countries on the trip is a close US ally. Giving a seal of approval to Bush's campaign, the MoU signing was held under the auspices of Saudi King Abdullah's wife, Princess Hessa al-Shaalan, who was due to host a dinner for the US First Lady in the Red Sea city of Jeddah Tuesday night. Bush was also due to meet with the monarch in Jeddah.   

Bush stressed the importance of early detection of breast cancer in order to survive what is a leading cause of death among women. "Over the next quarter century, an estimated 25 million women around the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer," she told the audience at the signing ceremony at the King Fahd Medical City. She said a lot had changed since women in the United States were 'too embarrassed and too fearful to talk about breast cancer' 25 years ago.   

Bush said two of her predecessors as first ladies, Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan, made their bouts with breast cancer public, which gave other American women the courage to do the same.    "Today in the United States, when breast cancer is caught early, the five-year survival rate is 98 percent," she said.   

Dr Samia al-Amoudi, a Saudi consultant obstetrician gynecologist who has written books and newspaper columns about her battle with breast cancer, also spoke about her experience during the launch of the partnership.   

The MoU provides for joint efforts in increasing awareness about breast cancer, research and treatment between the King Fahd Medical City and the Saudi Cancer Society and two US institutions -- the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.