TDCF, Visionscape advocate increased funding, research on childhood cancer

The Dorcas Cancer Foundation (TDCF) has partnered Visionscape Sanitation Solution to raise funds for the treatment of children living with cancer and to reduce deaths.

The foundation said funding remains a major challenge in reducing the indices of childhood cancer in Nigeria, as thousands of children are lost to the disease, which could be averted.

Speaking during a tour with Visionscape a the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Children Emergency unit, the founder and Director, TDCF, Dr. Adedayo Joseph, said there is need for more partnership to raise awareness for funding treatment of childhood cancer, as may of the children who await treatment due to financial constraints die from late intervention.

Adedayo who is also a Clinical Radiation Oncologist said childhood cancer has better prognosis than adult cancer, with its survival rate minimum in Nigeria compared to developed countries, identifying delayed detection, inaccessibility of treatment, financial constraints and wrong diagnosis among others as major challenges, which lead to death of these children with cancer.

“Children are the future of a nation and any child you allow to die unnecessarily is a great hero. Funding is limited, we have many children on our waiting list for treatment, some of them will remain on the list until they pass away, and they never get treatment. Nothing is more heart breaking than this.

“We want more partners and we are open to partnership, just as we are excited and grateful to Visionscape’s partnership to increase funding of treatment to save these children from the clutches of cancer,” she said.

On her part, the Head, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Visionscape, Maimuna Maibe said childhood cancer is a neglected area in health issues, as most of the attention is focused on adult cancer.

She said there should be more commitment and focus on childhood cancer in terms of research for early diagnosis, detection and treatment, stressing that health workers give wrong diagnosis due to inadequate knowledge of the causes of cancer.

Maibe said there should be adequate training of health workers at the local and federal level in order to easily identify the root cause of cancer, rather than diagnosing malaria and typhoid in hospitals, until it gets to the worst stage.

She, however, commended TDCF for their efforts in combating childhood cancer through sponsoring treatments, adding the Visionscape would continue to partner with such initiative to increase the survival rate in Nigeria.