Twinning Partnership for Childhood Cancer

Country: Ghana

Key Contact: Professor Tim Eden

World Child Cancer (WCC) works to improve services for children with cancer and their families in low-middle income countries, including Ghana. WCC builds and sustains partnerships between paediatric oncology units in low-middle income countries with those in high-income countries whose staff are able to volunteer to provide training and mentorship in skills that are essential to care for children with cancer.

In Ghana the two main hospitals that are able to treat childhood cancer, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital are partnered with the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh. Prof Lorna Renner is the project lead in Ghana for this work and Dr Emma Johnson from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh is the twinning lead. Healthcare professionals from Edinburgh including paediatric oncologists and haematologists, specialist nurses, pharmacists and surgeons have been visiting these hospitals in Ghana since 2010 to deliver training. This ongoing specialist support and mentoring has helped Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to develop into a centre of excellence for childhood cancer treatment and the number of children diagnosed with cancer in Ghana has tripled since 2010.

Twinning partnership for childhood cancer

WCC received a second funding grant from the UK government to fund the development of a network of shared-care centres around the country to improve access for all.
In addition, WCC’s programme in Ghana focusses on increasing rates of diagnosis by educating healthcare professionals and communities on the early warning signs and symptoms of childhood cancer, providing psycho-social support to children with cancer and their families and improving drug availability and facilities.

This twinning partnership has increased with not only Ghana but we have developed a hub in West Africa helping several other countries by sending nurses, doctors and pharmacists to Ghana and other countries for training alongside those in Ghana

Volunteers from other hospitals and individuals trained in a variety of disciplines from medicine and nursing to social work and play therapy and are always welcome as volunteers in the programme and we welcome expressions of interest.