Families of cancer patients receive funds
World Child Cancer, a UK-based charity with a subsidiary in Ghana, has started disbursing funds to patients and families of children living with cancer.
The $30,000-fund, which was made possible by Love Your Melon, an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children suffering from cancer, is meant to help reduce the financial burden of such patients and families of such children with regards to transportation and diagnostic costs.
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It would also prevent those with limited resources from falling further into poverty.
The Regional Coordinator for Sub Saharan Africa of World Child Cancer, Mr Emmanuel Ayire Adongo, who disclosed this said the donation had also allowed for the expansion of childhood cancer services in health facilities such as the Tamale Teaching Hospital, the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
He said the funds were given to certain hospitals in the country who made them available to beneficiaries.
Mr Adongo expressed gratitude to Love Your Melon for the donation which he said would continue to have a significant impact on the lives of children with cancer.
He stated that in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) such as Ghana where diagnostic and cancer drugs were not manufactured, cancer management was very expensive.
Unfortunately, he said majority of the parents of children with cancer were poor people and were ,therefore, unable to cater for the cost of diagnosis and treatment of the sickness.
He added that some even found it difficult to get money to transport their children to the health facilities for medical care and that is why the provision of the funds was significant.
Mr Adongo said there was hope for children with cancer, therefore, children and parents should report early to health facilities when they see the signs and symptoms which he said included white eye ball, squinted eye, loss of vision, protrusion of eye ball, lump on the cheek and the abdomen, bleeding gums, bleeding beneath the skin, painful bones and joints, brittle bones, vomiting, unexplained pallor, enlarged head, fever and headache.
He used the occasion to talk about the International Childhood Cancer Awareness Month which is observed in September every year to create awareness of cancer and the fact that it is treatable when detected early.
He said the month was also set aside for advocacy for people and organisations to provide funding for childhood cancer treatment.
“Children have the right to life, they have a right to survival.
Organisations and the general public should use the colour gold which is associated with the month celebration to promote awareness of childhood cancer and its funding,” he advised.
Meanwhile, a Paediatrician at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Dr Emmanuella Amoako, has called for support for the treatment of childhood cancers to ease the financial burden on parents and guardians reports Shirley Asiedu-Addo.
She suggested the possible adoption of children with cancers by organisations and other well-meaning individuals to reduce the burden on affected families.
Dr Amoako noted that the high cost of treatment of cancers on families left many families frustrated and unable to continue with treatment.
Defaulting treatment, she noted, could lead to disastrous consequences.
