Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched a fundraising campaign to ensure life-saving medical care for patients with cancer in northern Syria.
By raising QR5,060,000 in donations, QRCS said it could provide essential chemotherapy and immunotherapy medications for a whole year for 220 Syrian refugees and displaced people with cancer.
QRCS allocated $1mn to procure quantities of medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic equipment as soon as possible, especially a positron emission tomography (PET) scanning device, which is used to detect a wide range of diseases, including cancer.
All the medical services provided under the project will be totally free of charge, as the poor patients cannot afford the high cost of treatment and other diagnostic services.
The project, under the slogan “Hope for Cure”, is implemented in partnership with the Idlib Governorate Hospital’s Oncology Centre. Operated by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), the hospital will provide lists of medicines and equipment needed for treatment and diagnosis, as well as a list of beneficiaries and their medical reports.
The Idlib Directorate of Health and local and international organisations will be involved in conducting studies and surveys on the current situation of the health sector in northern Syria.
In a press statement, Dr Mohamed Salah Ibrahim, director of Relief and International Development Division at QRCS, said: “For many years now, millions of Syrians have been displaced by the civil war. The brunt of the crisis was taken the most by cancer patients, who are desperate for intensive treatment, as well as financial and moral support”.
“QRCS joins hands with the benevolent people of Qatar to launch a live-saving project to secure cancer medications for refugees and displaced people in northwestern Syria. Many of these are helpless children, women, and older persons whose sole hope is to get help from Allah and from donors. Let’s pray that they might find physical and spiritual recovery after years of pain and suffering,” he explained.
According to official health statistics, there are more than 3,000 cancer patients in northwestern Syria, and the number is increasingly growing, with an average of 1,100 new cancer cases being discovered annually.
In the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Turkey and northern Syria a few months ago, most of these patients lost the opportunity to receive free treatment as a result of the damage caused by the disaster, while the chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs remain too expensive for most of the patients to pay for.
Amid such a gloomy reality for cancer patients in northern Syria, and the absolute importance of this charitable campaign for alleviating their suffering, QRCS calls on everyone to support the campaign, and help give a new hope to children and elderly people with leukemia and brain cancer, as well as women with breast and lung cancer, by donating via the website (www.qrcs.qa/HC) or calling the donor service number (66666364) or home donation collection number (33998898).
