Foundation to raise funds for Asikam Children’s Cancer Centre

The Wish4life Foundation has launched the Voices for Life campaign to solicit for funds to build $250 million multi-purpose 100-bed children's cancer research centre at Asikam, near Kyebi in the Abuakwa South Municipality in the Eastern Region.

The project, International Children’s Cancer Research Centre Ghana, will serve as a flagship, closing the gap among paediatric patients who are diagnosed and treated by creating the first Paediatric Cancer Centre in Africa.

The facility is expected to be completed within two years and will bring both local and international doctors to boost treatment and care for childhood cancer patients in the country and the sub-region.

Donation can be made through the foundation’s partnership bank, Stanbic Bank website or mobile money on the short code; *718*25*958#.

Bridging the gap

The Founder of Wish4life, Dr Tanya Trippett, said there was a gap where most children were not able to come down to Accra and receive treatment and proper care.

That, she noted, was the reason why the foundation decided to build the centre at Asikam as it would allow children access to health care that was not available to them and their communities.

“We wanted to create a haven for parents who are suffering with their children through the most difficult experience in their life.

We wanted them to be surrounded by beauty”, she explained.

She emphasised that the foundation’s wish for the treatment centre was to make the hospital a community and a global team effort.

“The vision that the community leaders have is what made us choose Ghana as a place to bring this possibility to”, she stated. 

Cure rate

Dr Trippett, who is a Pediatric Hematologist Oncologist, revealed that the achievable cure rate in paediatric cancers was over 80 per cent, however in Africa, the cure rate was approximately 20 per cent.

She said their aim was to overcome the existing healthcare disparity in children with cancer in limited resource countries by addressing the needs and making the cure for their cancers a reality.

“Through access to essential medical expertise, medicines, supplies, resources and infrastructure support, the foundation will provide capacity building in partnership with paediatric cancer programmes around the globe”, she stated.

Dr Trippett noted that articulation of cancer experience from diagnosis to cure was essential to obtain a cure and that quality investment in cancer cure saved lives.

Challenges

She said most parents were faced with numerous challenges when seeking cancer care.

That, she said, included lack of quality facilities close to home, inadequate laboratories, lack of organised food programmes in hospitals, inadequate patients accommodation in outpatient setting among others.

Goal

A lawyer for the foundation, Ken Tshribi, said the foundation’s goal was to give children access to a comprehensive and sustainable supply of chemotherapeutic and supportive care medications critical to the delivery of curative therapy.

He said the foundation would implement nutritional programmes and empowerment initiatives to ensure the health and well-being of children undergoing cancer treatment.

“Access to medical expertise for the training of medical professionals regarding the care of children with cancer and their treatment and also training of medical personnel and community in early detection of atric cancers”, he added.

Wish4Life Foundation

The global humanitarian initiative began with a wish from a 13-year-old African boy, Eugene Gasana Jr., a cancer survivor who wanted other children in Africa to have the benefit of the same quality cancer care that he was given in the United States.

The focus of the foundation is a global humanitarian initiative designed to provide or enhance the opportunity for a pediatric cancer cure for children in developing nations.

The International Children’s Cancer Research Centre Ghana will be founded as a teaching facility for training and knowledge transfer for medical and allied professionals, and as a technology hub for Ghana and the countries of West Africa, one of the fastest-growing regions in the world.