We need facilities to treat cancer

CANCER will continue to be a leading cause of death into the future, and patients and families will need care, support and realistic expectations to cope with it.
Cancer is an unkind disease.
A patient’s battle in the hope of defeating it is often a long one.
The process is painful, depressing and heartbreaking.
Virtually everyone knows someone who has been affected by the disease.
While we appreciate everyone’s effort to raise funds for awareness programmes, let us take a moment to think about those who have been diagnosed with cancer.
For them, it is not just talk – cancer is real. Most know there is no hope; it is just a matter of time before they die. Let us be more sensitive.
Cancer awareness can be disrespectful to some patients and discredits the disease’s impact on their families through misleading marketing efforts.
What they want to hear is treatment.
Only those who have lost a loved one to cancer know that Papua New Guinea is a long way away from providing effective and efficient treatment for cancer patients in the country.
Because of what’s not available in the country, families pool together whatever little finance they have and with the help of fundraising and donation, they send their loved ones overseas to receive treatment.
Cancer knows no boundaries and does not select who to attack and it can bring a person down quickly. While those who can afford overseas treatment go, spare a thought for the cancer patients who have no means of seeking treatment abroad.
Life can be unfair but that is reality here in PNG – and it’s not a bad dream.
Just stop and think about what they go through every day.
For the affected and their families, advocacy will not stop the pain of how cancer has changed their life.
We agree with the advocacy to inform people about risk factors, early detection, etc, but once cancer is detected, where do we go?
If the country does not have diagnostic facilities, scanning facilities, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormonal therapy, molecular diagnosis, radio and brachytherapy then cancer detection is useless.
And only very few cancers can be screened, anyway. Many cancers are detected when patients with symptoms turn up at hospitals.
With the current situation we have in the country, they and many others’ hope is to live another day and hope for a miracle to wake up to the news that there are cancer treatment machines in the country and it is your turn to receive treatment.
The focus on awareness should change to also include raising funds for the purchase of medical equipment needed for the treatment of cancer.
Rather than waiting for the government, everyone should join hands and raise funds for diagnostic facilities, scanning facilities, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormonal therapy, molecular diagnosis, radio and brachytherapy.
Today, everyone is encouraging and supporting widespread education and frequent medical examinations but the truth is we have a long way to go in this battle.