Voice note(v1) from Kath

What is cancer? The word cancer comes from the Greek word which means a
crab because it is used to describe something that spreads and has crab like
legs. So when we talk about cancer it is a disease where some of the cells in the
body grow abnormally and out of control mostly what we expect is that when
cells in your body grow at a point in time they will stop growing and that is called
“programmed cell death?, But cancer cells don't behave like that so they
continue to grow and grow and grow abnormally. They form lumps in most of
their abnormal cells in the body and that also prevents the body from working
properly. In simple terms that is what cancer is next paragraph.
What can increase the chance of someone getting cancer?
So currently we are talking about childhood cancers for childhood cancers there
are a few factors that increase their chances of you getting that cancer.
First is your genetics. So if you have the genes for that cancer there's a likelihood
that you might get that cancer. So let's take cancer of the eye, there are specific
genes for it. If you have that gene, then, you can also get cancer of that eye and
other infections. Infections like HIV and some other viruses even hepatitis B virus
can predispose you to cancer. Other things like radiation so those of us who are
living under high tension lines and other electricity lines emits a lot of radiation.
Lots of our phones emit radiation microwaves emit radiation. So all these
increases the chances of you getting cancer. We also use radiation to treat
cancers. If we treat your cancer with radiation we also increase the chance of
you getting a secondary cancer. But for childhood cancers, one thing though we
don't need to know is that your lifestyle Modification doesn't really change your
chance of getting a childhood cancer but it happens. At some point in time you
have those decide to change and you can develop cancer. When we talk about
lifestyle Vacation like adults, that doesn't really occur in children and doesn't
help in childhood and a child not smoking or drinking alcohol doesn't really affect
their chances of getting cancer.
So what inspired me to work with children who have cancer is that, I took it as a
challenge. I was also inspired by the courage and the resilience of children who
face cancer and I thought it was an opportunity to make a real difference in their
lives. And I started taking care of children with cancer at KATH, and I went
through the books we really didn't have children surviving the disease but we
had already been taught that children would survive and So what was happening
that made children in Ghana not survive, so I took it as a challenge to make that
difference, to see if children will recover and we'll return to their normal lives and
to change their outlook of childhood cancer because at that time, everyone
thought that childhood cancer was dead but we know that childhood cancers is
not dead. This is because 80% of children with cancer can survive and live
beyond their disease. So that is what pushed me into childhood cancer. I thought
that it would be very rewarding to see that they survive, and currently as we are
having more survivors, it makes me see the reward of Was done and that's the
decision I took. If I hadn't taken that decision, most of the children would have
died and we wouldn't even be doing this work that we are doing now . So, for me
I thought that it was a chance for us to support families through this difficult
journey and to make sure that we make a big impact in the lives of these
children.
How is childhood cancer defense from cancer in adults?
Childhood cancers are different because they are fast growing, they grow very
fast and most of them are quite immature in their young. So in our terms, We call
them that they are embryonal but one thing about embryonal tumors is that they
are very responsive to treatments and so since childhood cancers are embryo
now they are totally different from adult cancers hence, they are treatable. They
are not caused by lifestyle factors modification. For childhood cancers, early
diagnosis and proper treatment can change the lamb scale and that can change
and make sure that we can cure the child and can live a healthy life.
One major thing is that if your able to cure one child of cancer, that child has the
whole of the rest of their lives to live to help our mother, Ghana.
What are the most common cancers we see in children in Ghana?
In Ghana, the major cancer we see, the number one cancers we see are the
cancers of blood which we call “Leukemia”. We have the acute leukemia and the
ones that are the chronic leukemia. So they are the number one cancers that we
see. Then also subsequently, the number two cancer we is, is the “Brain Tumor.”
Tumors that are found in your brain. Number 3 is “Tumor of the eye”, which we
call “Retinoblastoma” Number 4 is “Tumors of the kidney”, which is the “Wilm’s
tumor” Number 5 is the tumor which are found in our lymph nodes and most at
times in the blood and are called “Lymphomos” Thee are the five major cancers
they we see but apart from that, there are other cancers. We have “cancer of
the liver”, which is called “Hepatoblastomas.” We have cancers of the bone
which we call “Osteosarcomas” and cancers of the smooth muscles, which is
called “rhabdomyosarcomas”, cancer of the ovaries, testes which is called “germ
cells tumors.” So lots and lots of tumors, retinoblastomas, wilm’s tumor and then
the lymphomas. But for children with cancer, we cant end anything without
talking about early warning signs.
What we normally use is called the “Saint Siluan sign.” SILUAN stands for;
S- Seek help for any persistent symptoms
I- Eye changes; redness in the eye, whitish spots
L- Lump and swellings anywhere in the body
U- Unexplained fever, weight loss, bleeding
A- Aches and pains anywhere in the body
N- Any neurological signs and symptoms. Like a schange in behaviour, change in
sensorium, a change in a way a person is walking, early morning vomiting.
All these can be an indicator that a child is having a cancer and so when you see
all these, it will be very important for you to bring the child to us to see because
if we are able to pick them up early, then that can help us so that we can be able
to manage them appropriately so that they can survive and become survivors