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6TH ANNUAL COLORECTAL CANCER IN AFRICA AWARENESS WORKSHOP
Theme: Closing the Care Gap in Colorectal Cancer: Early Detection, Coordinated Pathways & Workforce Excellence Across Africa.
23rd March - 26th March 2026
Lusaka and Ndola, Zambia
AKWI ASOMBANG, MD, MPH, FACG, FASGE
Dr Akwi W Asombang is an interventional gastroenterologist and Director of Global Health Programs in Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She completed her advanced endoscopy fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medicine Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri and a Fogarty International Clinical Research fellowship. Her Fogarty International-NIH sponsored research focused on gastric cancer in Zambia. Prior to her fellowships she completed a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri and her MPH at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. She is a graduate of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. Her other professional interests are endoscopy, physician education/training and global health. Her travels around the world, upbringing, and interaction with various populations led her to form this organization to tackle the problems faced by most of the African communities. She strongly believes that as an individual we have a duty to one another, we each have the ability to change one life for the better and with this organization hopes to touch an infinite number of lives.
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GANIYAT OYELEKE, MD, FMCP, FACG, AdvPGDipHCHM
Dr. Ganiyat Kikelomo Oyeleke is a consultant physician, gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria. A 1995 medical graduate of the prestigious University of Ilorin, Nigeria, she was awarded the Internal Medicine Fellowship of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria in 2009. Prior to joining the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in 2015, she worked as a consultant physician and gastroenterologist at the General Hospital, Broad Street Lagos for 5 years. She has attended various local and international trainings, courses and conferences, and she has published in peer reviewed journals, given talks and presentations on the liver and gastrointestinal disorders at many local and international meetings. She is an examiner for the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria. She is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), a member of Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN), European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), American College of Physician, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM). She is actively involved in medical education at work and in her community. She is the coordinator of the World Gastroenterology Organization-Lagos Training Center, a co-director of the Lagos Viral Hepatitis ECHO (a branch of the Sub-Saharan Project ECHO), and an AAFG (African Association of Future Gastroenterologist) mentor. She is a loving wife and mother and loves to spend quality time with her larger family when not at work.
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NURSE CAMELIA GECSE
Camelia Gecse is a registered nurse working in the UK at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust – Poole, Dorset.
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She qualified from Nursing School in Romania in 2001 and has worked mainly in theatres throughout her career. She has experience in robotic, laparoscopic, and open surgery in colorectal, upper GI, breast, and endocrine surgery. Currently, she is the Manager of the General Surgery team in Poole Hospital. In Romania, she worked in both the public and private sectors and gained experience in specialties such as cardiovascular surgery, head and neck surgery, gynaecology, urology, trauma, and orthopaedic surgery. She relocated to the UK in 2016 and has since gained further experience in the public sector healthcare system. Her first experience in Africa was in Uganda in 2023, where she volunteered in a teaching program for nursing students.
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She has participated in the previous two CRC programs in Nigeria, where she found it a real pleasure and privilege to teach and learn at the same time.
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Sharing her knowledge and skills with colleagues from different backgrounds is an important part of her role and responsibility. She also values the opportunity to learn from others, as her goal is to continually develop and improve herself by acquiring new skills.
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In her free time, she enjoys hiking, interacting with people, and making new friends. Her purpose in life is being a scrub nurse and helping people.
SEGUN KOMOLAFE, MD
Segun Komolafe is a General & Colorectal Surgeon working at University Hospital Wishaw, just outside Glasgow, and is the former NHS Lanarkshire Clinical Lead for Colorectal Cancer. He studied Medicine at Glasgow University, graduating in 1999. Whilst at University, he also undertook an intercalated degree (BSc) in Parasitology. He then trained in general surgery in the west of Scotland, specialising in colorectal surgery. He gained further international training with a Laparoscopic fellowship at Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos / São Paulo, Brazil, before being appointed a Consultant in Wishaw in 2012. More recently, he completed further training in Robotic Surgery in 2021. His current practice includes Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery for Benign and Malignant Colorectal Disease, as well as Emergency General Surgery. He also has an extensive endoscopic practice, participates in the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme, and routinely undertakes therapeutic endoscopic and colonoscopy procedures.
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Segun is an active member of the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship programme, and has helped with surgical courses and training in Brazil, Malawi and Nigeria. He is on the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s teaching faculty for the Non Technical Skill for Surgeons Course, with a particular interest in delivering NOTSS training in resource-limited clinical contexts. He is also a former College Tutor of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and is Surgical Lead for Undergraduate Medical Students Teaching at UH Wishaw.
DR OLORUNDA ROTIMI, MSc, FRCPath
Dr Olorunda Rotimi is a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a consultant GI and liver histopathologist at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds and an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Leeds, UK since 2002. He had his undergraduate medical education in Nigeria and postgraduate education in histopathology in Nigeria and the UK. He was the head of department of cellular and molecular pathology in Leeds (2016-19) and he is currently the clinical director for pathology at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
In addition to his diagnostic and teaching roles in Leeds, Dr Rotimi has a passion for capacity building in histopathology in Africa. Since 2006, he has facilitated several practice changing technical and diagnostic training workshops for pathologists and biomedical scientists in various countries of Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco and Uganda. He has also played host to several visiting fellows in histopathology in his department in Leeds. He is developing the use of digital slides for remote education to centres in Africa.
He is an examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists and has served as external examiner to the Nigerian National Postgraduate Medical College exams in pathology. He is the Country Advisor of Nigeria with the Royal College of Pathologists, UK. He is a member of several professional bodies and an active researcher in GI and digital pathology with several publications in international journals, many with African colleagues with whom he collaborates regularly.
MUKHTAR AHMAD, MD
Dr. Mukhtar Datti Ahmad is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Lead Clinician for Colorectal Surgery at the University Hospitals Dorset, UK. His main clinical area of interest is robotic surgery for rectal cancer. He teaches minimal invasive surgery in the UK and Nigeria. He is passionate about safer surgery particularly in resource-challenged areas.