The largest Children’s Cancer Hospital in the world has reached out to the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta seeking collaboration over the cancer burden affecting children in Kenya.
The special message from the Children’s Cancer Hospital (Egypt) Chief Executive Officer Prof Sherif Abouelnaga was delivered to the First Lady at State House by the Egyptian Ambassador to Kenya Mr Madmoud Ali Talaat and Ambassador Hazem Fahmy, the Secretary General of the Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development (EAPD).
During the occasion on Thursday, the Envoys pledged their support to the Beyond Zero Initiative.
Recognising the great contribution the First Lady has made towards advocacy against cancer in Kenya, the Egyptian Ambassodor said that it would be a great honor for the First Lady to visit the Children’s Cancer hospital to strengthen efforts towards battling this disease that is taking the lives of many women, men and children in Africa.
The 320-bed cancer hospital widely known as ‘Hospital 57357’ is the largest children’s cancer hospital in the world, offering a comprehensive healthcare institution that combats childhood cancers in all their facets and presentations.
“The hospital is recording an average over-all survival rate of 74 per cent and attempts are being made to increase it to the Western rates of 75-80 per cent. It (hospital) also pursues to create a new system of health care where management and treatment utilize the most scientific approaches practiced today”, says the hospital’s message to the First Lady
The request for collaboration comes at a time when the office of the First Lady, under her Beyond Zero initiative, has commenced plans to construct the multi-phased, Sh 2.2 billion National Referral Hospital for women and children.
The proposed State-of-the-art 150-bed Beyond Zero Hospital is designed to house special departments including a well-ness, training and research. It also has departments for critical care for neo-nates, a High-Tech Laboratory, theatres, wards, human-milk banks and outpatient facilities.
This is not the first time that the Egyptian Cancer Hospital is seeking collaboration with Kenya. It has an established working relationship with the Kenyatta National Hospital, through the Ministry of Health, under the patronage of EAPD.
The two institutions have an existing comprehensive program for medical and training expertise exchange. The program revolves around three main axes; treating a limited number of cases in Egypt, offering the opportunity for vocational training at the hospital and enabling medical convoys and telemedicine consultations.
The Cancer hospital and Foundation says while its core mission is to provide the highest standards of care for free for all children with cancer in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the other aspect of its mission is to collaborate with sister Arab and African nations with which Egypt is strongly tied geographically historically and genetically.
“We seek to instill hope in a better future for all our children with cancer”, says Prof. Abouelnaga.