Top Oil donates GH¢50,000 to Korle Bu

The management of Top Oil Company Limited (TOCL), an oil marketing company, has donated GH¢50,000 to the Paediatric Oncology Unit of the Department of Child Health, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).

The donation was part of the company’s activities to mark its 15th anniversary celebration which was observed this month.

The Executive Chairman of the company, Mr Ben Atsu-Agbomanyi, who presented the cheque to the hospital, said the donation was the company’s “widow’s mite” in response to the several news items widely carried out by the media on children living with cancer, and the loss of lives as a result of the lack of resources for treatment.

“While we (TOCL) pray for the recovery of the little ones, we also hand over this cheque as a little contribution to augment the resources the department needs to save the lives of the innocent children who come to them for treatment”, he said.

Life-saving gesture

The head of the children’s department of the hospital, Professor Christabel Enweronu-Laryea, who received the donation said the department would ensure that the money was used for the intended purpose.

She thanked the team members for their kind gesture, saying “I hope the partnership created today would forever remain, so in the future other children hospitalised could also benefit.”

The head of the Paediatric Oncology Unit, Professor Lorna Awo Renner, indicated that treatment of cancer in children had a survival rate of about 80 per cent, stressing that when children living with cancer got the right treatment at the right time they could be saved from untimely deaths.

She thus encouraged parents to always report illnesses of their children to the hospital for early diagnosis and treatment of before they reach the late stages, instead of resorting to self-medication and herbal treatment.

Professor Renner also expressed appreciation to the oil company for its kind gesture, saying the money would literally save the lives of several children living with cancer as the cost of treatment was often expensive and most parents could not afford it.

“Treatment of cancer in children is not covered by NHIS, so every pesewa has to come from the parents. This usually becomes a burden apart from the emotional and psychological trauma they go through caring for their children,” she said.

Halfway treatment

Prof. Renner said due to the cost involved, parents and guardians often abandoned treatment for their children halfway through the process and urged parents to pay more attention to the health of their children.

“As a doctor and advocate of child health, one major problem we are confronted with is that parents of children living with cancer had the tendency to abandon treatment halfway due to financial challenges,” Professor Renner stated.

She indicated that the Oncology Unit had started lobbying to get some cancer drugs included in the NHIS list of essential drugs but that was yet to be approved, ”so until then, the problem of withdrawal from treatment will continue to pose a threat to the lives of children living with cancer”, she added.

Prof. Renner appealed to stakeholders to help fight childhood cancer in Ghana, stressing that “a life of a child living with cancer saved means about 60 to 70 years of a life of productivity to the nation.”