By Michael Dibie
In commemoration of the International Childhood Cancer Awareness day 2024, Okapi Children Cancer Foundation held the maiden edition of community sensitization exercise with the theme: “equal access to care”.
The medical care exercise which was held at the Chief’s Palace, Gwarinpa Village, Abuja which offered complimentary health screenings to over 200 community members, was supported by Silver Cross Hospital and Trust Charitos Hospital, Abuja.
Head of Management, Okapi Cancer foundation Okonokhua stated that Childhood cancer is emerging as a significant concern, yet it receives minimal attention from the media, government, and the public at large.
He said in an effort to address this issue, OCCF organized the community awareness campaign aimed at informing the public about childhood cancer, with the goal of raising awareness and reducing instances of delayed diagnosis.
According to him, globally, February 15 is set aside to mark the International Cancer Day and Okapi Cancer foundation being the leading foundation that focusses on childhood cancer decided to come to the community in Abuja to raise an awareness about childhood cancer in Nigeria.
“We are very aware that a lot of people in the urban centers may have heard of childhood cancer but those in rural setting do not know or may not have heard about childhood cancer.
“As a matter of fact, when I was speaking with the village head, he was surprised that children can have cancer but we know globally about 400, 000 children suffer from cancer every and in Nigeria specifically the surviving rate is less than 20 percent,” he added.
He noted that that means that for every 10 children that comes down to cancer, only 2 survive in Nigeria but in advanced counties, 8 of out of 10 do survive.
“What are the challenges that prevents children from surviving cancer in Nigeria? We have realized that apart from the fact that cost of treating cancer is high, late presentation is also a major issue and this late presentation is occasioned by the fact that most parents are not even aware that the children have cancer because they do not know thwhen noticed on timee symptoms,” he said.
A medical practitioner with the Federal medical center, Jabi, Ifeoma Ezeukwu warned cancer is real and can affect anybody at any time. She added that parents should always be mindful of changes in their children and take them to hospital when they noticed such symptoms.
“It can occur in blood, leading to shortage of blood, also pains on the legs or a child losing weight, it can also be swollen parts of the body. Cancer in children can be cured when noticed on time and treated,” she added.
According to her, their aim is to ensure that all children with cancer in Nigeria are treated on time and get cured.
One of the traditional leaders in the community, Bayaro Yafudu Says he is very happy to have received the health screening test from the foundation,
“I pray to Almighty God to provide more for them and that God will provide them with more funds for the drugs and the facilities they have given us”
It would be recalled that in 2020, almost 125,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in Nigeria and almost 79,000 died from the disease.
Okapi Cancer Foundation is a non-governmental organization that helps to fight cancer in children between ages 0-18 years, the foundation currently works with the National Hospital, the Teaching hospital in Gwagwalada and the Federal Medical Center, Jabi Abuja as part of the centers where they provide care for children through funding.
