Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Cottonil's Giant Underwear was About Something More Important than a World Record

The homegrown brand has added to the long laundry list of Egyptian-set world records, but for a very important cause.

Staff Writer

You'd have to have been living under a rock to have missed Cottonil's peculiar but nonetheless impressive achievement of entering the Guinness Book of World Records for producing the world’s largest undershirt and underwear combo entirely. The dimensions of the pure cotton master piece is 36.49x27.65 meters and weigh 230 kg for the undershirt and 18.09x25.36 meter boxers weigh in at 200 kg for the boxers. However what many have neglected to realize is the cause behind it which is to raise awareness on prostate cancer and the ways to prevent it.The campaign - dubbed "Be Sure" - that inspired this record will include 10,000 free medical PSA cancer (Prostate-Specific Antigen) tests and check ups for males over the age of 40, throughout the month of March. This comes in an effort to encourage Egyptian men to pay heed to the life-threatening disease and encourage regular check ups. The campaign - which is in cooperation with the Ministry Health & Population - is well overdue with a significant number of Egyptian men suffering from the disease due to a lack of detection or treatment. According to Dr. Mohamed Kelany, Lecturer of Clinical Oncology at Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, 9% of Egypt’s population is in the most at-risk age group, adding that:

“65% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer, either do not receive the treatment needed or are examined at a later stage, reducing the chance of cure and resulting in a greater number of deaths, many of which could have been prevented.”CEO of Cottonil Egypt, Basel Samaqia also adds, “We are proud to have the opportunity to shed light on this serious cancer. Traditionally, there has been a taboo in discussing prostate cancer, though awareness and early detection can save lives. In cooperation with specialized laboratories and under the auspices of the Ministry, “Be Sure” campaign will send mobile medical vehicles all over Cairo, throughout the month of March to provide men over the age of 40 with free PSA test recommended for prostate cancer screening”.