RoMMeF calls for intensified efforts to address childhood cancer

The Dr Robert Mitchell Memorial Foundation (RoMMeF) has called for intensified efforts and resources to effectively address childhood cancer in the country.

The Foundation said this in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to commemorate International Childhood Cancer Day, which falls on February 15 every year.

The Day, which is on the theme “Better Survival is Achievable #throughyourhands,” seeks to put a searchlight on the devastating effects of childhood cancer on children and the country at large.

It said childhood cancer continued to be a common medical cause of death among children, with more than 300,000 children from age zero to 19 years being diagnosed with the disease worldwide annually.

In Ghana, it is estimated that over 1,200 children are afflicted with cancer every year and though childhood cancer has become a major public health issue, the

focus is exceptionally low compared to other health interventions for malaria, HIV and AIDS and others.

The Foundation said that was a source of worry as children under age 15 constituted about 38 per cent of the population with most of them residing in areas where there were inadequate health facilities.

It also expressed concerns over the growing superstition and stigmatisation against children with childhood cancers.

The Foundation said though the Government, The Rebecca Foundation, as well as the Cancer Society of Ghana,

had put in place many interventions and strategies to fight against the disease, more needed to be done.

The statement called for the marshalling of forces from all spheres, including parents to save a child from cancer.

“In this way, we will be contributing our quota to ensuring a generation of children free from cancer, a feat, which will be forever ingrained in the hearts of posterity,” it stated.