GE Healthcare’s ‘Get Fit’ social media competition on Twitter, aimed at raising public awareness on cancer prevention and healthy living, has received a good response from the Middle East region.

A  large number of residents in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have endorsed healthy lifestyle practices and their commitment to ‘Get Fit’, said a statement.

Globally, the Middle East and African regions led the campaign, which was held over a two-month period encouraging people to tweet about their own health and fitness activities that have been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing cancer.

More than 700 participants from 55 countries took part in the campaign generating about 5,500 Get Fit tweets.

GE Healthcare had committed a $20,000 donation to the Red Crescent or Red Cross Society of a single country in the winning region, which was determined through an online poll at the end of the contest. Kenya garnered the most votes, and the Kenya Red Cross Society will receive the donation.

Aziz Koleilat, general manager at GE Healthcare for the Middle East region, said: “The ‘Get Fit’ campaign was a perfect fit to our healthymagination initiative, which focuses on strengthening access to quality healthcare at lower costs across the region. It also underlined our earlier model of healthcare, where the emphasis is on prevention and early diagnosis.”

Nearly 30 percent of all cancer deaths can be prevented, according to the World Health Organization. Each year, 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from the disease. 

Evidence shows that 30–40 per cent of all cancer deaths can be prevented, and one-third can be cured through early diagnosis and treatment. Research has also found that a healthy diet and regular exercise can help reduce the risk of cancer. – TradeArabia News Service