The Belize Cancer Treatment Center in Dangriga is doing serious work for hundreds of Belizeans in managing their cancer care. But, when cancer patients need radiation they still have to go abroad - to Guatemala or Mexico for treatment. Many can't afford it - and that's where things fall apart. And that's where the Social Security Board stepped in today, with a generous donation of three hundred and seventy thousand dollars. We found out how it will be used for children and women with cancer:
Dr. Ellsworth Grant - Belize Cancer Center
"It's a great honor to be here today on this most historic day and I don't think this moment should really be lost on anyone. I thank the Social Security Board for this - a moment which really allow us to provide a more structured programs to children. I hope that this moment will allow parents with a child who is who newly diagnosed with a cancer to not really have to stress over the portion of where the child will actually go to obtain care or how it will all be financed. I'm hoping we will have a program in place that provides one shop stop. One stop shopping for these parents."
Dr. Cecilio Eck
"We've seen multiple interviews with parents going to Channel 7 and Channel 5 begging for an interview. asking BNE asking Friends of Pediatrics, the Cancer Center, Ministry of Health, Social Security Board to help put care for their kids and if you work in the trenches it's even more devastating to sit in front of a mom and trying to find out when is their next chemo and they don't have the funds to get to the Center to get it done. So, this is a really awesome day."
Laura Tucker Longsworth, President - Belize Cancer Society
"It is now going to give us the opportunity to really put in some structure and moving our children and our patients through a structured system so time is not wasted. Children get very sick as Dr. Eck will tell you and they get sick quickly and so they need to be moved in a timely fashion."
Dr. Cecilio Eck
"The hope is that with the judicious use of these funds we could put programs in place where a kid and their family would not need to come to you and interview for funding. They would literary have a structured way in which to get to a cancer treatment center and thereby decrease, I think or increase our responsibility as a country to our kids and the treatment of their cancers."
Jules Vasquez
"Ok, and then however, it is just then a window of opportunity through which certain fortunate persons would be allowed to pass, but it is finite. It is $370,000."
Dr. Cecilio Eck
"Well the difference between 0 and $370,000 is 370,000. So, it's a huge window."
Dr. Ellsworth Grant - Belize Cancer Center
"On the radiation side, cervical cancer has been the 2nd or sometimes 1st a cancer in terms of numbers which affect women of this country and they all require radiation which is not available in the country and we have to send them out of the country. It's about $7,000 to radiate a woman with cervical cancer again this grant will help a great deal of women."
Delone Pascascio, Belize Cancer Center
"Going forward we're going to be able to at least at the very least improve the quality of service and the timeliness of service to these 2 populations of patients."
Dr. Peter Allen, CEO - MINISTRY OF HEALTH
"We have wanted to put in place a more structured system where the needed funds are available from one trusted source were the funds are managed in such a way that we can ensure that the quality of the care provided for our children is the very best possible and where we can be sure that the funds are managed as effectively and efficiently as possible so as you have heard today from Doug, that support is now being made available through this really amazing intervention by the Social Security Board. The finances will be managed through the good offices of Belize Cancer Society."
Doug Singh, Chairman - SSB
"The selection process of course is a well screened plan selection process that the Belize Cancer Society in conjunction of the Belize Center in Dangriga will be doing and they will essentially ensure that the people who can benefit from the treatment do benefit from the treatment."
And so while the grant from social security opens up a very welcomed window of opportunity for the Cancer Treatment Center - Dr. Ellsworth Grant says that prevention is better than cure. For cervical cancer that means the HPV Vaccine for young women which can prevent and someday eliminate this very prevalent form of cancer. And while there is the will to do it - because of resistance from certain religious sects - government is wary of adopting such a programme. Dr. Grant says it has to happen:..
Dr. Ellsworth Grant - Belize Cancer Centre
"We should not be treating all these women for cervical cancer. At some point we need to vaccinate and have a prevention program in place. Not everyone will agree with this program but this is not about adults, not about the church, this is really about young people, securing a future that's free of cervical cancer. I am fully committed to the battle of making sure that young people are vaccinated with the HPV Vaccine so that we don't have to sit at a podium like this and talk about cervical cancer in the future. It will be a battle, but it's a winnable one."
The Ministry of Health is discussing a HPV vaccine program - but that is at the initial stages.
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