By Elizabeth Osayande

In commemoration of childhood cancer awareness month, Phinny’s talent studio in conjunction with the Children Living with Cancer Foundation, recently held an annual art exhibition and stage production in Lagos, to create awareness and support for children battling cancer and their families.

According to the organisers, the event tagged:” Colours of hope ,” was an annual event aimed at saving lives; exhibiting children’s artistic talents and artworks, and at the same time, giving children battling cancer a voice and hope.

Speaking at the programme, the convener of colours of hope and the creative head of Phinny’s brands, Josephine Iwatan said that it was alarming that lots of people do not know or believe that children also do have cancer.

“When I was informed that there are children in Nigeria living with cancer, I was surprised because I only saw it in movies. This discovery made me visit wards where these children are, to lighten their world by bringing out the creativity in them. This is as I channeled my mind to change the orientation of people by creating awareness that cancer indeed affects children. And to also solicit support for these children. I also found out that 90 percent of these children die due to superstitious beliefs, lack of finance, and religion.

“So, every time, we hold this exhibition, we are trying to clear out all the issues that are causing the deaths of these children. Basically, we want to save lives with this exhibition. We don’t usually see people talking about children’s cancer in Nigeria; most people don’t even know that there are children that have cancer. We have had cases where it was a child that saved another child’s life because the child could understand the symptoms. We are making sure that people are aware of the signs and symptoms before it gets worse.” Iwatan explained.

Also speaking at the event, the co-convener and the founder of the children living with cancer foundation, Dr. Nneka Nwobbi said that September was a childhood cancer awareness month and every year, worldwide people try to create awareness for children living with cancer.

“This awareness is essential in our environment because of the total lack of awareness in this clime. That is why we try to do as much as we can to get people to know that children have cancer.

One of the things that we do is to try and tell the story of a child every year so that Nigerians could understand what it means and know that it is not a foreign thing.

“For instance, out of 10 parents, we interviewed, nine did not know that children have cancer. Why the remaining one knew but did not associate it with Nigerian children or African children because they only see it in movies. Because of this lack of awareness, we have children being brought in late for treatment, and even when they come, parents still don’t believe that children can have cancer. They take them away and go looking for a better diagnosis: by the time they come back cancer would have been in the last stage, which means that the child most likely would not survive. That is why we are trying to create as much awareness as possible.” Nwobbi reiterated.