The Ghana Cancer Care Foundation (CanCare), a non-government organisation, has launched a fundraising activity to support projects that will improve the detection and treatment of cancer and provide counselling and care for patients and their families.
The activity is the first in a series of a year-long events being organised by CanCare with the objective of raising GH�100,000 to
contribution towards the Ghana Childhood Cancer Project.
Mr P. K Mensah, Executive Director of CanCare, who launched the project in Accra, over the weekend, said the funds would be used to subsidise the cost of chemotherapy drugs, to make treatment more affordable to families.
He said it would also help raise awareness among health professionals of the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer in order to promote early detection and diagnosis.
"CanCare is assisting Africa Oxford Cancer Foundation to seek support from compassionate individuals and organisations towards the achievement of the modest target set by the project, to improve child survival rates in
Ghana from 20 per cent to 50 per cent of easily treatable cancer, and reduce abandonment of therapy from 50 per cent to 10 per cent over the next five years," Mr Mensah said.
He said the funds would facilitate training support to the medical staff of Korle Bu Paediatric Cancer Unit to ease the discharge of their medical services.
Mr Mensah said GH�12 would be used to provide transportation for a patient and the carer to return to hospital for vital follow-up treatment.
An amount of GH�1,200 would also be paid for one child, suffering from Burkitt's lymphoma to have a full course of chemotherapy treatment, adding that GH�12,000 could be used to furnish the parent and child hostel, allowing parents to sleep near their sick children.
Burkitt's lymphoma is the cancer of the lymphatic system, which is a highly aggressive type of B-cell disease that often starts involving body parts.
Lymphoma is a group of diseases characterised by progressive enlargement of the lymphatic tissue, resulting from the proliferation of malignant lymphoid cells.
Mr Mensah said it is important for Ghanaians to notice that cancer is not a single disease with single type of treatment, explaining that there are more than 200 different kinds of cancer, each with its own name and treatment.
The fundraising events involved the auctioning of fine wine, a book on cancer, paintings and artworks.
The project, spearheaded by the Africa Oxford Cancer Foundation and World Child Cancer, is a five-year twinning programme between the paediatric cancer unit at Korle Bu hospital and the Royal Hospital Sick Children in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.