The fight against cancer continues on 15 February

MIDRAND – CHOC is gearing up support for the 'Have a heart for children with cancer' initiation as part of International Childhood Cancer Day.

February 15, 2018

Welisa Nene 2 minutes read

The Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC) SA ambassadors, Phumeza Mdabe and Jessica Nkosi are calling on all South Africans to honour International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD) on 15 February.

ICCD is a global collaborative initiative which raises awareness of childhood cancer and expresses support for children with cancer, survivors and their families.

According to Childhood Cancer International (CCI), childhood cancer continues to be the leading cause of non-communicable-related deaths in children throughout the globe with more than 300 000 children diagnosed with cancer every year with about 1 000 new cases in South Africa alone.

“In developed countries, childhood cancer has become largely curable with the overall survival rate reaching between 70 percent and 80 percent, whereas in South Africa the rate is about 55 percent partly due to lack of knowledge about the disease,” said Zelda Jacobs, communications manager of the foundation.

“CHOC aims to improve this rate by creating awareness of childhood cancer symptoms. Early detection of childhood cancer affords early diagnosis, enabling a better chance of being cured and increase in the survival rate.”

In support of ICCD, CHOC is calling on schools, corporates and community groups to wear blue with their trendy ‘have a heart for children with cancer’ badge or heart pin on 15 February.

According to the World Health Organisation, the incidence of childhood cancer globally is about 160 000 new cases every year.

Early detection can dramatically change this scenario. The South African Children’s Cancer Study Group (SACCSG) has developed a set of early warning signs for childhood cancer, which has been adopted by the International Society of Paediatric Oncology.

A cancer survivor, who wished to remain anonymous, has spoken out about her illness in the hope of encouraging other people to get regular medical check-ups.

The survivor said, “I was sitting in the lounge one night when I noticed that a mole on my leg had grown bigger and there was something strange about how it looked. The mole was biopsied and the diagnosis came back – I had stage three malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.”

In 2015 she went for another test and it was discovered that the melanoma had spread to the lymph nodes in her groin.

The doctor recommended she try a new treatment, immunotherapy. It was a newer treatment that had shown a lot of promise in treating advanced melanomas.

“But the problem was that it was neither available nor registered in South Africa. With the oncologist’s help, we got permission from the Medicines Control Council (MCC) and we then ordered a type of immunotherapy that works by helping the immune system do what it was meant to do: detect and fight cancer cells.”

“The benefits of immunotherapy cannot be overstated. I sound evangelical when I talk about it, but it helped to save and improve my life, and did so in the least invasive way possible. Since then, I have been in the best of health. Four months after I completed the treatment I ran my first-ever half marathon.

“I’d like to advise people to avoid getting sunburnt, seek out the shade, use a broad-spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen whenever they go outside, and to see their physician every year for a professional skin exam. And to people who have melanoma, please don’t see it as the death sentence it once was.”