Five-year-old Davies Yemi is a survivor of kidney cancer. Chioma, Davies’ mother recounts: “It was a horrible experience. He could not go to school and he was almost robbed of his childhood. Right from the day he was diagnosed, our life changed. During those times we passed through hell, we sold all we had just to raise money for the surgery because there was no help. Psychologically and emotionally we were down, for the fear that one day the doctors will come and say, ‘Madam we are sorry”, she stated.

But Davies is lucky, unlike four-year-old Ayokunmi Makinde and nine-year-old Olamilekan Ajadi who died of leukemia (cancer of the blood). Hundreds of other childhood cancer patients are on the waiting lists of health institutions across the Federation.

Worried about the low survival rate of cancers in the country, the Head of Department, Paediatrics Department, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, CMUL/LUTH Professor Adebola Akinsule, identified late presentation of cancer cases and the expensive nature of cancer treatment as reasons for the unfortunate trend.

Speaking on the prosed mega charity fund-raising concert tagged; “Paediatric Concert”, organized by Help- to- Heal Foundation and Golden Tulip Hotels, Festac, Akinsule said a complete treatment for kidney cancer (nephroblastoma),  costs around N1 million.

“We will have to monitor the child up to five years. It takes between N7 million and N10 million to cure blood cancer, which lasts two or three years. This is not feasible for an average Nigerian family, and remains one of the reasons why our cure rate is very low  due to lots of treatment abandonment. It therefore becomes an excruciating experience for families of children who have cancer and can’t afford to travel or be properly treated in Nigeria”, Akinsule explained.

“Part of the short and long term for funds raised at the concert and other various sources will be used for the treatment of five children in Egypt, assist in the provision of paediatric hospital equipment to some hospitals in Lagos state, training of doctors abroad and building a modern paediatric oncology hospital in Lagos,” Shousha Mohsen, GM, Golden Tulip Hotels, remarked.

 

By ESTHER ONYEGBULA