Childhood cancer: Fighting the good fight

He now lives at ASHIC Foundation, a shelter for childhood cancer patients, and has undergone three months of a three and a half year treatment plan. While he is cognisant of his reality, Himel remains positive. When ASHIC Foundation Founder and Chairperson Salma Choudhury’s three-year-old son Ashiq succumbed to his cancer after an arduous, heart-wrenching battle, she decided to keep his memory alive by making a difference in the lives of thousands of other Ashiqs. Since its establishment in 1994, the ASHIC Foundation has helped more than 15,000 children just like Himel. The Bangladesh Child Cancer Project has estimated that around 9,000 children develop cancer annually, but only 1,000 have access to healthcare. In 2016, 4,465 children were newly diagnosed with cancer through World Child Cancer hospital programmes. At ASHIC, between May 2000 and February 2017, 654 have been diagnosed with childhood cancer. Of them, there are 69 survivors, 76 are still undergoing treatments and 265 have died. According to National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) statistics from 2016, between 2011-2014, the age-standardised cancer incidence rate for children aged between 0-14 years in Bangladesh is 7.8 per million people per year. The most prevalent childhood cancers are retinoblastoma, leukaemia and malignant bone tumours. In Bangladesh, the most common types of luekaemia are Acute Lymphoblast Leukaemia (ALL) which costs around Tk3 lakh to treat and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) which cost around Tk5 lakh. Khokon, a childhood cancer survivor, was nine years old when he came to ASHIC. His father, a rickshaw puller, found his son’s treatment to be a great economic burden. Though Khokon is now a proud 30-year-old father of a newborn, he was one of the lucky ones. The lack of treatment facilities and the high cost of treatment means not everyone is able to receive the help they require. After visiting Bangladesh, Chief Executive of World Child Cancer Jon Rosser said:“Of the total number of childhood cancer victims, roughly 80% do not receive any cancer treatment.” Awareness needs to be raised about childhood cancer, and support needs to be garnered so that every child stands a fighting chance. February 15, the International Childhood Cancer Day, is the perfect opportunity for this and to commemorate those who have been lost in this endless battle.