World Cancer Day 2024 : Mortality in Africa set to reach 1 million deaths per year by 2030

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 Sunday is World Cancer Day, an occasion to shed light on and raise awareness for a cancer-free society and future.

00:06 It's also a day to focus on innovative techniques that can help in the ongoing battle against this group of diseases.

00:12 One of those people leading the fight is Nancy Gitoito,

00:16 founder of Limao Cancer Connection in Nairobi.

00:20 Nancy, thanks so much for joining us right now.

00:26 Exactly, what do you do at the Limao Cancer Connection and how is it appropriate for

00:32 raising awareness today of all days?

00:35 Thank you very much, my name is Nancy Gitoito. I run a non-profit called Limao Cancer Connection. Limao means lemon,

00:45 so we help breast cancer patients make a lemonade out of their cancer journey by providing them with resources

00:51 such as the knitted prosthetics that give them dignity and that self-esteem to continue with life even after losing a breast.

00:58 The other thing we do is education and providing them with psychosocial support group that help them fight this disease in a collective,

01:04 supportive, safe environment.

01:07 Yes, so this day is very important to us because it's a commemoration for

01:13 us to remember that cancer exists and we're all in this emotional journey together.

01:18 I started Limao after losing my mother,

01:21 so it's a special day to

01:23 talk about the challenges that the patients are going through and how we can engage the government in fixing the system.

01:29 You speak from personal experience. It's quite difficult to find people who haven't been affected by this awful disease.

01:38 Where are we in the fight as a

01:41 species against cancer?

01:45 Well, I think living here in San Francisco,

01:49 I realize there's quite a lot of progress in terms of screening,

01:54 diagnosis, treatment.

01:57 I do engage UCSF here and there's a lot of progress in the diagnosis and treatment,

02:04 maybe because of technology. While in Kenya, I think there's quite a little bit of some mileage,

02:10 but we still have a long way to go in terms of the corruption that has been going on in the country.

02:16 We don't have enough oncologists. We don't have enough human resources,

02:22 resources as well as radiotherapy machines,

02:26 the radiotherapy

02:29 machines are just like six of them, the whole country, you know.

02:33 So I think the government should really pay attention and the numbers that we have today are really alarming.

02:40 Over 44,000 of

02:42 diagnosed patients are

02:45 new diagnosis, new diagnosis is happening every year in Kenya and these numbers are quite alarming.

02:52 Not even withstanding the number of the misdiagnosis cases because of machines that are not well

02:59 functioning well or the personnel that is not able to read

03:04 the diagnosis. So there's a lot of negligence and misdiagnosis cases in Kenya.

03:10 But I know there's,

03:13 what is it called? There's a National Cancer Association that is really doing a lot of good stuff

03:18 with the new management. So we hope to see some progress and lower the death rates in Kenya.

03:26 You have quite a unique position of working in Kenya and in San Francisco.

03:32 What do you think the two places can learn from each other in the fight against cancer?

03:38 And what different aspects can we be looking at across the board around the world?

03:43 So what we need to borrow a leaf from

03:49 first-world countries like America is integrity.

03:52 We have a lot of corruption cases where the doctors in Kenya are more into profit-making

04:00 as opposed to putting the health of the patients ahead and

04:04 recognizing the poverty rate in Kenya.

04:07 The patients that we work with are very, very poor. These are patients who survive on a

04:12 dollar, less than a dollar every day. So a cancer diagnosis

04:16 literally is a death sentence to them.

04:19 For example, mammograms. Mammograms should be able to be free.

04:24 So right now with the National Health Insurance Fund that was there, there's all these

04:30 funds, embezzlement that really had been called out.

04:33 But it's like we're just recycling the same people.

04:37 The government should do a better job in terms of

04:40 implementing all these resources.

04:43 There's a new social health insurance fund, which is quite promising.

04:49 I understand it's going to cover the diagnosis, the screening, and also the patients can be able to

04:56 utilize the fund once their health fund is over.

05:01 So it's called the Social Health, it's by Social Health Authority.

05:05 And it's called the Social Health Insurance Fund.

05:09 Once they have the chronic diseases fund, once it's exhausted, they can be able to use this fund.

05:14 But the problem is we always talk about all these amazing things that the country is doing.

05:19 But the implementation is where the problem lies in.

05:24 The corruption in Kenya is really, really at a level where it's affecting families and we're losing a lot.

05:29 And, you know, with the statistics, 44,000 people dying every day and, you know, almost half of them,

05:38 you know, the diagnosis and half of them dying.

05:41 The data is really alarming.

05:43 So I hope we can also implement the data, the way the first world countries like UCSF, John Hopkins,

05:51 they have very good data collection and data monitoring and evaluation.

05:57 We don't have that in Kenya.

05:58 It's quite a hot mess.

05:59 Well, we do hope that hot mess under William Ruto does improve in the years to come in Kenya.

06:06 Thank you so much for joining us.

06:08 And with those important messages, Nancy Gitoito for joining us.

06:12 Nancy is the founder of Limau Cancer Connection in Nairobi.

06:16 And on this Cancer Awareness Day, we wish you a pleasant day here on France 24.

06:22 That's all the news for now.

06:23 Please join us for more coming up in just a bit.

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