The Childhood Cancer Society of Ghana, in partnership with the Paediatric Society of Ghana, has launched Childhood Cancer Awareness Month under the theme "Joining Hands to Fight Childhood Cancer."

Dr. Lily Gloria Tagoe, a paediatric oncologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, stated during the launch on September 12, 2024, that although Ghana is expected to see between 1,200 to 1,500 childhood cancer cases annually, only a third of the cases are seen at treatment centres.

According to her, this is largely due to challenges such as the inability of parents to recognize that their child might have cancer and the inability of some hospitals to diagnose cases as cancer.

She asserted that the actual cases of childhood cancer seen yearly across the three childhood cancer treatment centres in the country are between 400 to 500. The centres are the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), which is the largest centre in the country, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH).

She added, “It is very concerning and very difficult for most parents because cancer doesn't know social strata; it doesn't know your financial status. It can occur to anybody, from the unemployed family to the rich family. Everybody's child can get cancer.

“We need to support them so that when patients come to the hospitals, they don't need to worry about the next treatment or the money for it.”

Joy Otabil, the wife of the founder of the International Central Gospel Church, said that through the collective and collaborative efforts of many people contributing to research and development, education and training, policy and governance, resources and finances, they could deal with and minimize the impact of childhood cancer in Ghana.

Adwoa Pinamang Boateng Desu, a country coordinator for World Child Cancer, called for a collaborative effort in the fight against cancer.

“To us, we don’t see this awareness creation activity just for the cancer awareness month, which is September, but it should go beyond.

"We should continue to create more awareness so that more people will learn about childhood cancer, and more resources should be dedicated to supporting the treatment of cancer and research works related to cancer.”

The President of the Childhood Cancer Society of Ghana, Professor Lorna Awo Renner, mentioned that there are a lot of planned activities to create awareness of childhood cancer.

She further asked stakeholders to join and create awareness.

The launch was part of the worldwide Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, which is observed in September.



AM/KA

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