The Accra Diamond Lions Club (ADLC) has donated items and equipment worth GH₵ 5,120.00 to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) cancer unit in Ghana.
Development Diaries gathered that the ADLC donated the items in partnership with Apps Nmobile solutions.
The items included toiletries, liquid soap, baby diapers, hand sanitisers, cotton wool, plaster, antiseptic floor cleaner, digital thermometer, blood pressure monitor and nebulisers.
Although there is a dearth of reliable data on cancers in Ghana, available figures indicate that cancer has emerged as an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the West African country.
In its 2012–2016 National Strategy for Cancer Control in Ghana, the country’s Ministry of Health cited figures from GLOBOCAN that 16,600 cases of cancer occur annually in Ghana.
The most frequent cancers in men in Ghana are cancers of the liver, prostate, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), stomach and colorectum; while the most frequent cancers in women are cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, and ovary.
It is also understood that cancers are also an important cause of morbidity in young persons in Ghana.
At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Burkitt’s lymphoma was the fourth and third commonest cause of admission in boys and girls aged five to 14, accounting for 5.6 percent and 8.3 percent respectively, according to the Ministry of Health.
‘The month of February is normally seen as the childhood cancer month and we are glad to also show our love during this particular period’, Ghanaian Times quoted the CEO of Apps Nmobile Solutions, Richard Bansah, as saying.
For his part, the ADLC Activity Chairperson, Jonathan Sam, said, ‘We do diabetes awareness, screening of eyes, environmental activities, giving food to the under-privileged children amongst others and this would continue throughout the year’.
The Pediatric Oncology Fellow of the KBTH, Dr Lily Gloria Tagoe, who received the items, expressed gratitude to the organisations.
‘We want to say we are very grateful for this generous donation and that this would go a long way to help us in rendering of our services to the children’, she said.
With a membership of about 1.4 billion, the Diamond Lions Club is a philanthropic organisation in about 246 countries in different geographical areas around the world.
Photo source: ADLC
