20th July , 2020
India is capital of pediatric cancer because out of the 200,000 children who develop cancer every year, 25 percent actually develop it in India. We have upto 50,000 new children with cancer in India every year. There is a huge burden to take care because they require very intensive treatment but the unfortunate fact is that only a third of them actually reach medical care facilities as there are social and economic constrains that the families face in India. About 2,500-odd children take treatment at the TMH facility itself.
“Access Life Assistance Foundation” has been supporting children with cancer, undergoing treatment at Tata memorial hospital since their first centre was set up at Chembur in June 2014. The beauty of this organization is that not only does it provide a home like environment for patient and parent , it also support nutrient and transportation needs of these families.
Pediatric cancer is highly curable when treated appropriately by not just a medical multi-disciplinary team , but by also providing all necessary support for families to undergo treatment journey. This includes financial , nutrition, accommodation , transfusion and other support. Setting up more centers across India , which provide such holistic care is need of the hour in the country to tackle the burden of the pediatric cancers.
Access life insurance does not levy any administrative charges for the family or the hospital which makes it one of the finest places for recommending accommodation for our patient as most of them hail from low socioeconomic strata.
Only the children who are the most deserving and in dire need of support , are recommended by physicians at the hospital. Inclusion of family into unit is completely transparent.
TCM’S holistic plan of providing each patients family support with accommodation and other domestic needs at the centre like that of access life has not only improved the cure rate of childhood cancer to over 70% , but also significantly decreased the refusal and abandonment of treatment by families.
We sincerely hope that Access life is able to open more centers to meet the unmet demand of shelter for children undergoing cancer treatment.
Dr. Girish Chinnaswamy , MD
MD (Peds), MRCP (UK), MD(UK)
Professor and head (Pediatric oncology)
Department of Pediatric Oncology