Partnership Pushes Belize’s Pediatric Cancer Progress

We’ve got breaking news tonight in the fight against childhood cancer, and it’s a big win for Belize. The Belize Cancer Society has landed major funding from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This means expanded treatment for kids battling cancer and lifesaving care closer to home. Shane Williams has the details.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Childhood cancer is curable in eighty percent of cases where modern treatment is available. In a small country like Belize, where roughly fourteen children are diagnosed each year, specialized care remains limited, forcing many families to seek treatment abroad. Since 2008, a partnership with Hospital O’Horan in Mérida, the Belize Cancer Center in Dangriga and the Ministry of Health, has already doubled Belize’s five-year survival rate from thirty-eight to sixty-seven percent.

 

Dr. Pablo Gonzalez Montalvo, Oncologist

“The strongest prognostic factor for childhood cancer is not the type of cancer. It’s not the. The greater the, the stage is the place in which you happen to be born. And this is a harsh, or it was a harsh reality for Belizean. Children in Belize were testing if they got cancer, were destined to die because there was no availability of childhood care. Child cancer care here, unless you had enough money to go back and forth for a two or two and a half year treatment. So it was not the cancer killing children, it was place of birth. It was lack of resources.”

 

The Belize Cancer Society made a huge announcement at its Christmas party for children who have survived cancer and some who are still fighting. President Kim Simplis Barrow announced that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has agreed to provide critical funding to strengthen childhood cancer care in Belize. It marks the biggest leap forward yet in Belize’s long-standing cross-border treatment model.

 

Kim Simplis Barrow, President, Belize Cancer Society

“I’m. Very happy to report that we just received Word two days ago that we were successful in the grant process, and so the Belize Cancer Society has received its first, uh, deposit from St. Jude to. Hospital only and a little bit of what this project is about. This project is really, fundamentally, it’s bringing childhood cancer care to Belize. It is that by 2027 we should have, we should be able to working with the Harner Memorial Hospital. We should be able to to do chemotherapy administration to children, uh, toxicity management, imaging, pathology, excluding immunohistology chemistry, porter cut procedures, nurse education, end of life care, very important, and post-treatment follow up.”

 

Providing inpatient care in Belize will remove a serious barrier to care. Through the collaborative efforts of Agustin, O’horan, Belize Cancer Center and the Belize Cancer Society, much has been down to reduce the financial burden on families battling pediatric cancer. However, families must still travel to Merida and stay for an initial three months to begin treatment. Dr. Montalvo says treatment often fails because families are forced to pull out due to financial hardships.

 

Dr. Pablo Gonzalez Montalvo

“If you get a diagnosis of leukemia by two early two thousands, you would have to go stay in the hospital for a month, then get treatment every week for two more months. As an inpatient, you have to stay there, and then you would get to come back to Belize and go back every month for two years. The, it’s like a twelve hour trip and then crossing the border is no easy task. And then the expenditures related to that and that they, you miss out of your job and the families come apart because, if the mother and the child stay for three months abroad, problems are bound to happen. So that was a situation. This is why they abandoned treatment. This is why they refuse treatment sometimes because it’s unbearable for some family. Even if you have some form of financial support, it will be a catastrophe. Then we moved upon having them come to marry them for three months and then send them back for leukemia and come every two or three months for a special part of the treatment, which is a spinal tap that wasn’t available here. Then on, on, on the pandemic, we. Sorted out that bit. So now they come to me when diagnosed for three months, they come back to Belize and they get the full two years of maintenance treatment here in Belize. So they never have to come back.”

 

For the Belize Cancer Society, this announcement is more than funding, it’s a promise of equity, dignity, and hope for every child facing cancer. The Belize Cancer Society says work begins immediately, with assessments, training, and a formal bilateral agreement with Mexico expected in the coming months. Shane Williams for News Five.