Childhood cancer - the need for support
Last Wednesday was International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD), which highlighted the need for concerted global actions to address the growing challenge posed by this non-communicable disease.
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Globally, cancer is overtaking infectious diseases as the leading cause of disease-related mortality in children and adolescents.
Available statistics indicate that more than 215,000 children who are 14 years and younger and 85,000 adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year globally, and many more remain uncounted and unreported due to lack of childhood cancer registries in a number of countries.
While fewer children than adults develop cancer, the number of years of life saved is significantly higher when children are treated with modern therapy, which cures 84 per cent in high-income countries and often provides the child with many decades of healthy and productive life after cure.
Furthermore, even in less-resourced areas of the world, many children can be cured when local and international support are effectively mobilised.
The ICCD campaign’s ultimate goal and unified message is, “Better access to Care for Children and Adolescents with Cancer Everywhere.”
This message spotlights the inequities and glaring disparity of access to care in most low and middle-income countries where 80 per cent of children with cancer live.
Children and adolescents in Africa, Asia and Latin America and in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe do not yet have access to appropriate treatment, including essential medicines and specialised care.
Chances of surviving
Currently, where one lives often determines one’s chance of surviving childhood cancer.
The mother of a childhood cancer survivor and global prime mover for childhood cancer initiatives, Princess Dina Mired, says:
“The chance for a cure, the chance to live, should not be an accident of geography. There is nothing scarier than realising that your child has cancer. However, there is nothing more tragic than knowing that treatment and cure does exist for your particular child’s cancer and with excellent outcomes, BUT… that it is not available for your child. Why? Because your child happens to live in the wrong hemisphere! It is time to take action to stop this cruel atrocity …make your voices heard on ICCD and demand from world leaders to act and help save all children regardless of where they live!”
Call for solidarity
The 1,800 healthcare professionals from 110 countries who are members of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) and the 187 member organisations of Childhood Cancer International (CCI), the largest non-profit patient support organisation for childhood cancer, urge everyone to come together in solidarity to make sure children and adolescents everywhere have the chance to survive cancer and live long, productive and meaningful lives.
“On International Childhood Cancer Day, we ask that stakeholders in health care, including parents, families and communities advocate for government collaboration with national civil society organisations, non-profit groups and local communities to ensure that children and adolescents with cancer have appropriate care and support throughout the childhood cancer journey (from diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care).
“This call to action supports Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Three, Indicator number Four, that by 2030, we reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention, early diagnosis and treatment and by promoting mental health and well-being. Indeed, ‘If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty and inequality by 2030.’
“With your help, we can create lasting, positive change in the lives of the children/adolescents with cancer who are the future of all our nations and global society as a whole,” the President of the Ghana Parents’ Association for Childhood Cancers (GHAPACC), Dr Felix Kwame Aveh, told the Daily Graphic.
On behalf of the GHAPACC, he saluted all childhood cancer survivors and parents whose children had been diagnosed with cancer and were receiving treatment or who had lost their children.
“A person who loses his/her spouse is called a widow/widower, but there is no word for a person who loses a child. It is because it is an experience that defies description, especially if it is through childhood cancer,” he said.