Once a year the Belize Cancer Center welcomes a team of Oncology specialists to provide specialized assistance to patients. We got to meet the team today and learn a bit more about the magic they've worked over the past few days with these cancer patients. Jomarie Lanza reports.

A team of Doctors - oncology specialists - are in Belize this week working alongside the the Belize Cancer Center, Dangriga. They hail from Rochester New York, froma volunteer group named Intervol. They bring a wide range of knowledge and expertise, assisting patients to get the best of treatment options and advice.

The team is currently in Belize City doing their rounds and today we stopped in at the center to meet them and discuss how exactly this partnership and medical mission began.

Dr Saad Jamshed, InterVol
"It dates back to many many years, InterVol is one of the volunteer organizations we have in Rochester regional health and we have been coming here doing different medical camps since late 2000. I got involved in coming to the cancer center in 2018. There was a little bit of a gap during Covid because traveling was difficult but coming here and seeing patients has been very rewarding. The team here does a phenomenal job of providing care to patients. It is difficult we see the challenges patients face day in and day out. They experience through different barriers that they have all the way from screening being able to conduct their testing and being able to afford all the care that they need and to be able to be a cancer survivor takes a lot both not only in the patient but in the family and multiple stressors so the team does a mi r job over here providing care locally cause I can imagine that it will be difficult to provide all that care of here in Belize itself without the cancer center and Dr Grant and sister Dellone."

Dr Roxana Vlad Vonica, InterVol
"And he convinced us to come cause I specialize in prostate cancer and Dr Kirtani specializes in breast cancer and we see a lot of cases here so I think it is a need."

Dr Vatsala Govind Kirtani, InterVol "I will say something I found actually very encouraging is that every patient that I've seen is actually very involved with their healthcare they know a lot about themselves they know about their medication and have a good and reliable history and I think that involvement of community for themselves is the first step and they have it down. So that is great and I think we can build from there at this point."

Although a week might not seem like enough for this team to complete their work here in Belize, CEO Pascascio says that they're on an intensive schedule:

Dellone Pascascio, CEO, Belize Cancer Center
"They see both oncology patients and they see patients with hematologic diseases. Much of what we have seen is there are patients with sickle cell, a number of sickle cell patients and sickle cell of course is a hematologic condition. So far I would say that over the last three days we probably have seen about 10-12 patients with sickle cell. Either sickle cell being treated or active sickle cell disease and we are expecting to continue to follow those patients and then we have seen a sprinkle of patients with prostate cancer patients with breast cancer and one patient I think who has cervical cancer."

"We've been very very fortunate. The value that they bring in terms of their services and expertise to us is incalculable. Most of these patients would have to wait and many of the subject matter expertise that they provided in consultation is something we could not duplicate had they not been here with us."

President of the organization Kim Simplis Barrow says that this partnership serves as a testament to the cancer center's commitment to exceed barriers to source the best care for patients.

Kim Simplis Barrow, President, Belize Cancer Society
"For us it's so very important to have a collaboration and partnership with the Belize Cancer center Dangriga and with InterVol. It's such a great collaboration and partnership. Today I think we are seeing about 21 patients just here at the center. They have been here for over the past 4 days and so in Dangriga they were seeing patients as well. It is an opportunity that perhaps some of our Belizeans would not have had and it is always good to get a second opinion and to have a dialogue with professional oncologists."

The specialists concluded clinics today and will leave on Saturday.