The opening is celebrated in traditional Greenlandic style with a kaffemik, and people are streaming into Nuuk's new cancer counseling center, so extra chairs have to be brought in to make room for everyone.
The turnout speaks for itself. A great many Greenlanders have had cancer touch their lives.
"It is very important for me to have a house like this," says Kristine Joelsen.
Kristine Joelsen is one of the many Greenlanders present today who have experienced losing a family member to cancer. She lost her husband in 2016 and has brought a gift to the new center in the form of freshly baked Greenlandic cakes. (Photo: © Anda Hansen)
When she lost her husband to cancer ten years ago, she had no place to seek advice and guidance. Today, she has made a large platter of palaannguit, a Greenlandic dessert somewhat reminiscent of æbleskiver, for the coffee table as a gift to the house.
"In the old days, it was tuberculosis, but today it is cancer that prevails," she says.
The center has been established through a collaboration between the Greenlandic cancer association Neriuffiit Kattuffiat and the Danish Cancer Society, and it is intended to provide cancer patients and their relatives with counseling and calm surroundings during and after a course of illness.
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Higher mortality among Greenlanders
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Every year, around 250 people in Greenland receive a cancer diagnosis.
"We have had to find extra chairs," says Jesper Fisker, director of the Danish Cancer Society, who is pleased with the turnout. (Photo: © Anda Hansen)
The risk of getting cancer is not much higher than in the other Nordic countries.
Nevertheless, mortality is far higher in Greenland, explains Jesper Fisker, director of the Danish Cancer Society, who is also attending the opening.
"If you get cancer in Greenland, the risk of dying from it is simply much higher than it is both in the Faroe Islands and in Denmark."
Source: Nordcan / Danish Cancer Society
A new report from the Danish Cancer Society points to two fundamental causes.
First, many Greenlanders are diagnosed late, which means the cancer is more advanced and harder to treat by the time it is discovered.
Second, many Greenlanders smoke, and that can lead to lung cancer, which is one of the most deadly types of cancer.
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Large country and long journeys
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Sara J. Brandt is former chair of Neriuffiit Kattuffiat, the sister organization to the Danish Cancer Society. She was one of those who took the initiative for the cancer counseling center that has now become a reality.
She has herself been through a cancer course, and the project has become very personal to her.
"I know a great many people who have been struck by this harsh disease," she says.
Greenland's Minister of Health, Anna Wangenheim, gives a speech at the opening of the new cancer house in Nuuk. Inger Eriksen and Jesper Fisker – the directors of the Greenlandic and Danish Cancer Societies – listen along. (Photo: © Ritzau / Angu Motzfeldt)
Sara J. Brandt has flown in from the northern town of Aasiaat, and in her suitcase she has her national costume. It was actually she who was supposed to cut the ribbon at the inauguration of the new center.
But bad weather and a delayed flight meant she arrived too late.
And that essentially shows how difficult the logistics can become in a vast country with uncompromising nature. Also when you want to have a mole or a suspicious lump in the breast examined.
"Many people come to the doctor too late to receive treatment, and many have died from that," says Sara J. Brandt.
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