A lay of hope for people living with cancer

Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda is optimistic that the country will before mid this year start radiotherapy services for cancer patients as construction of a bunker is at an advanced stage.

Kandodo said this Sunday when she toured progress of construction at the National Cancer Centre in Lilongwe saying currently, over 120 patients are on the list to be flown abroad for radiation therapy which she says is costly.

“At the moment we only provide chemotherapy but we do not provide radiotherapy, so, some of the cancers in order to do proper managing you need to do radiotherapy,” said Kandodo Chiponda.

“When a patient is sent outside Malawi, we spend about $15,000 on a patient, that is excluding the air ticket and accommodation and they also go with a guardian which surely you can see that it is not sustainable,” she adds.

A representative of Plem Construction Limited Ajai Mohan who are building the bunker says all things being equal, construction works will be completed by the end of next month.

“We hope the construction will be done end March there after we will be waiting for some equipment,” Mohan said.

Statistics, according to the ministry of health, indicate that at least 18, 000 cancer cases are registered in Malawi every year and 12, 000 people living with cancer die each year.