Cancer In Children : Awareness Campaigns Ongoing Nationwide

While childhood cancer is rare, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related deaths in children and adolescents. Every September, advocacy organizations, healthcare institutions, patients, and families raise awareness for childhood cancer. It is against this backdrop that a walk and sport campaign took place on the streets of Yaounde on Saturday September 9, 2022 to raise awareness on childhood cancer. The event was organised by Mori's Child Association under the patronage of the Ministry of Public Health.
Participants at the event, who were mostly children, walked from the Post Central Junction, through the 20th May Avenue to the Prime Minister's junction with banners on which was written “Golden September:  Together we can conquer cancer in children". They revealed that cancer in children is a reality and not a myth. Children with cancer, they added, have a right to life like other children and they can be treated in Cameroon.
According to the World Health Organisation (W.H.O), each year, an estimated 400,000 children (aged 0–19 years) develop cancer. Nearly 9 in 10 of these children live in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where treatment is often unavailable or unaffordable. In Cameroon, statistics from Mori’s Child Association shows that an estimated 1,400 cases of childhood cancers are diagnosed each year, the most common include leukemia, brain cancers, lymphomas and solid tumours, such as neuroblastoma and Wilms tumours.
Information from W.H.O indicates that in high-income countries, where comprehensive services are generally accessible, more than 80 p...