The Founder of Children Living with Cancer Foundation (CLW- CF), Dr. Nneka Nwobbi has urged the three tiers of government to give discounts to childhood cancer patients in order to mitigate the impact of the huge amount expended in the treatment of the disease. Nwobbi who spoke during the CLWCF 2023 Walkathon on Childhood Cancer, explained that the burden of financing cancer treatment, most of which are paid out-of- pocket, was huge and often resulted in delayed and or abandoned therapy.

However, the founder of CLWCF said, “What we’re looking at is for governments to put a discount for childhood cancer patients in Nigeria, like subsidising their long hospital stay, their admissions, the radiotherapy treatment, among others.” The annual Walkathon, which was organised by CLWCF recently, brought together some childhood cancer survivors, their friends, and relations, among others. The Walkathon, an awareness walk on childhood cancer, began from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital(LUTH) to Ojuelegba roundabout from 7.30 a.m to Ojuelegba roundabout and back to LUTH.

During the walk, participants distributed information Education and Communication (IEC) materials which educated pedestrians and community people around LUTH in Idi- araba and Ojuelegba about childhood cancers and what can be done to curb the disease. While explaining the rationale for the walk, the founder of CLWCF said, “September was Childhood Cancer Awareness Month aimed to raise awareness about childhood cancer, which remains the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 14.

“This walk is to create awareness that children can have cancers. There are a lot of activities carried out in order to encourage children who have cancer to keep thriving.” She said the CLWCF have been embarking on Walkathon annually for several years, saying it is just an avenue to create awareness and educate people on issues regarding childhood cancer in Nigeria and all over the world. “So basically the walk is the least anybody can do to enhance the health of children living with cancer. That is to say anybody who is able to walk should walk regardless of the age difference because it is beneficial to their health and to the body.”

While highlighting the challenges children with cancer go through, Dr. Nwobbi said parents or guardians fail to bring the children in on time for screening. On the contrary, she said it was advisable to bring the child in for screening, and not wait until it is too late. “Another challenge faced by children is the finance for cancer treatments.” According to her, childhood cancer treatment is not a one-off thing; it is a continuous cycle of treatment and not everybody can afford that, not even after the child is pronounced fit.

This is because the child still needs to be maintained almost for life in terms of drugs. Furthermore, she said the fact that government hardly sponsors such treatments make it hard for the sick to get treatment, added Nwobbi. Also, Nwobbi called on governments to ensure the expansion of health insurance to cover more Nigerians and lamented that the current health insurance doesn’t cover cancers in Nigeria because it’s an expensive illness to treat.

She called for the intervention of governments and private organisations to prevent job losses for the parents of children suffering cancer occasioned by their length of hospital stays during the management of the disease. According to Nwobbi, when parents look after their children living with cancer, after sometime they lose their jobs; so the government should help not only the children but their parents as well, because the treatment of cancer is not a one-man thing. “Cancer treatment involves everybody around the parents: the friends, teachers, the health workers, among others.

Speaking on the things parents should look out for that serves as symptoms for childhood cancer, Dr. Nwobbi urged parents and guardians to seek medical advice for any- thing they don’t understand in their children. “Check out for the sensory organs and for any kind of bleeding in the child’s body. Also, easy breakage of bones is another thing to look out for. In addition, check for headaches, early morning nausea, depression, unhappiness, dull facial expressions, etc. Although she lauded the survival rate of childhood cancer patients, Nwobbi noted that it is gradually increasing due to awareness programmes. She however attributed the success to a couple of charities which goes to children who have cancer unlike before.

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