ALBERTON: September 1 marked International Childhood Cancer awareness month with the aim of raising enough awareness about the disease to combat the higher cancer related deaths among children.
Reportedly, around 80 per cent of all child cancer cases in the world are recorded in low income and middle income countries, however, less than a third of children are diagnosed and even less than 20 per cent of those treated, survive.
Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa (CHOC) reports that cancer has a profound effect on everyone it touches but says that with empathetic support and the right information, this disease can be survived.
The cancers most prevalent among South African children, as reported by Ayesha Sassman, Information Officer of the Cancer Association of South Africa, follows a worldwide trend. She says that leukaemia accounts for 24 per cent, brain tumours 21 per cent, lymphomas 16 per cent, cancer of the kidney – also known as Wilm’s tumour 10 per cent.
