Children suffering from cancer get support

PIC:  Billion Lotto MD Massimiliano Monte (right) handing over a sh10m dummy cheque to the MD of Bless a Child Foundation Brian Walusimbi as the children witness. (Credit: Violet Nabatanzi)

KAMPALA - Peace Awori is one of the 1,200 children being enrolled at the Bless a Child Foundation, an organisation providing care support services to vulnerable children suffering from cancer and related infections.

The five-year-old girl is HIV positive and at the same time suffering from skin cancer. Her mother Annet Alongoti, 20, and a resident of Nyabyeya Masindi district, said that her daughter's condition started deteriorating late last year.

Alongoti said she could not figure out that her baby had cancer until recently when she was diagnosed.

The little girl was first admitted at Kinyara Hospital and later referred to Hospice Africa in Hoima and then moved to Uganda Cancer Institute where she is currently getting treatment.

Alongoti is now happy that her child has been enrolled at Bless a Child Foundation, where she is expecting to get more support.

Speaking while handing over sh10m to the foundation, Billion Lotto managing director Massimiliano Monte said the money will benefit three children in need of surgeries.

Brian Walusimbi, the foundation's managing director, said awareness is another area that needs immediate attention, adding that people need to be aware of some preventive measures that can be undertaken to stay healthy.

He said most of the children at the foundation are suffering from Leukemia, Burkitts lymphoma, Wilms tumor and skin cancers, among others.

This came at a time when the country joined the rest of the world in October to celebrate the Breast Cancer Awareness month, which helps to raise attention and support for the awareness, early detection and treatment as well as palliative care of this disease.

According to the Uganda Cancer Institute, a third (1/3) of the patients admitted with different types of cancers are children aged between 1-15 years. And only 4% of the children referred to the institute report to the hospital yet the survival rate is at 30%.