This follows the inauguration of a 54-bed hostel facility for child cancer patients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

The facility, a collaborative effort between the GHAPACC and the Rebecca Akufo-Addo Foundation, now serves as a safe haven for all children who may be required to receive cancer treatment at Korle-Bu.

Facilities

The hostel, the Rebecca Sunshine Hostel, has 18 rooms, with each having its own toilet and bath, cabinets and ceiling fans.

A world-class standard, the facility also has a fully furnished and air-conditioned conference hall, which can accommodate 50 to 100 participants, a facility manager’s office and accommodation, a reception area for visitors decorated with paintings suitable for children, a fully furnished dining area for each of the floors, a fully furnished kitchenette for each of the floors, including microwaves.

Others are two store rooms, a washing room fitted with two washing machines, two television sets connected to DSTV, a family lounge with a 70-inch television also connected to DSTV as well as three huge water tanks fitted with pumping machines for water storage and an astro turf playing ground for the children.

Reality

Indeed, the First Lady will be forever remembered with her name written in gold and diamond on the hostel in recognition for her valuable contribution towards its completion and also for her concern for not only children, but the vulnerable ones in the society.

The completion and inauguration of the centre is a dream come true for the National Chairman of the GHAPACC, Dr Kwame Aveh, himself a parent who lost his son to childhood cancer.

Dr Aveh and his hard working executives devoted their time and resources to push the association and believed that the time for Ghanaians to prioritise the welfare of children by supporting the running of the hostel was now.

Memory

“This is a hostel project I have been championing for over 10 years. It is to house children with cancer undergoing treatment at Korle Bu,” Dr Aveh told the Daily Graphic recalling how he painfully lost his second son through childhood cancer in 2009.

With the hostel concept from South Africa, Dr Aveh wrote a book titled " the journey home" which speaks about my experience with childhood cancer, with the intention to sell and use the proceeds to build the hostel.

Describing the hostel as a dream come true, he dedicated it to the memory of his son, Elorm and all other children who died through childhood cancer.

Construction of the hostel began in 2017 on International Childhood Cancer Day, when doctors at the Childhood Cancer Department revealed that most patients fail to continue treatment due to the cost and the lack of proper accommodation for parents whose children were on admission.

For the GHAPACC, the next challenge has been how to maintain the facility and that is why the call by the association for all well-meaning Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians alike, to continue to invest in the expansion and maintenance of the project is still critical and appropriate.

Abandoning treatment

Briefing the Daily Graphic, Dr Aveh revealed that over 80 per cent of childhood cancer patients, who are seen at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, are referred from facilities outside Accra.

“Members of GHAPACC observed and found out that about 40 per cent of parents abandoned treatment after a few visits, thereby leaving children to their fate.

“Members of GHAPACC investigated and found out that affected families did not abandon treatment because they had lost hope and given up but rather due to accessibility challenges, lack of affordable accommodation and difficulty in transporting these young, sometimes quite ill patients to and from the hospital,” he explained.

Achievements
Dr Aveh was excited that “as a result of our advocacy over the years, NHIS has included a lot of the childhood cancer drugs on the protocol list, thereby reducing the burden of purchasing these expensive drugs by parents”.

Safe haven

Inaugurating the facility, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo said the denial, agony, desperation, and the financial burden associated with childhood cancer made it almost a taboo subject.

She noted that when detected early and treated comprehensively, recovery was high for childhood cancers, saying that one major challenge was the lack of suitable accommodation for the duration of a child’s treatment, for those who travel from afar.

The First Lady was sad that due to the lack of accommodation facility, only about 30 per cent of the expected number of children suffering from cancer, attend the two treatment facilities in Accra and Kumasi each year, saying that the hostel would offer children receiving cancer treatment and their families, a safe and a comfortable place to stay.