In the last year, we have established a model of cancer treatment. Hope Ward is equipped, specialist chemotherapy nurses have been trained and an Oncologist (cancer specialist), internationally qualified in both chemotherapy and radiotherapy is committed to providing long-term cancer care.
We need more funds to help support this work.
Cancer is a huge issue in Uganda – most families know at least one person who has been affected by this disease and research demonstrates that its incidence has increased massively over the last five years. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that cancer is one of the leading causes of death in this country, and has risen from causing 9.4% of mortality in 2005 to 13.3% currently. According to statistics from the Uganda Cancer Institute, the number of revisits by patients has gone up almost sevenfold from less than 1000 per year to between 6000-7000. A number of factors contribute to the increasing incidence of cancer in Uganda; the population is booming, people are living longer and HIV is still a major health hazard. Uganda is not alone with this prognosis. Data suggests that by 2020, > 60% of all cancer cases in the world will be diagnosed in the developing world.
Cancer does not have to be a death sentence: 30% of cancers are preventable, 30% are curable and the remainder can be supported with palliative care. Treatments for cancer can take many forms but the most effective are chemotherapy (when anti cancer medication injected into the body to destroy cancer cells) and radiotherapy (which is when high energy X rays are targeted at certain parts of the body to destroy cancer cells). However, treatment can take up to several months and may well require a combination of treatments, and they are expensive, so the ability to cure cancers is often far from realized in resource limited settings.
If you would like to know more or would like to help in any way then please do get in touch…
