PETA, PCMC team up to raise cancer awareness

MANILA, Philippines - A story of courage, faith and hope — this is the synopsis of “Munting Saranggola” (Little Kite), a play produced by the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and the My Child Matters Philippines at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), aiming to create widespread awareness about childhood cancer as well as to dispel myths surrounding the disease.

The story revolves around a boy who is afflicted with cancer and his fight to win over his disease. It was premiered recently at the PCMC grounds to commemorate the anniversary of the hospital’s cancer center.

“Every year, more than 3,000 Filipino children are diagnosed with cancer. With this, at least 80 percent may be cured if they are diagnosed early,” said Dr. Julius Lecciones, PCMC executive director. 

“Through this play, we hope that people, particularly parents, will be more familiar with the signs and symptoms of the disease and will be more proactive in seeking treatment should they suspect that their children are afflicted with it,” Lecciones said.

Intensified campaign vs childhood cancer

The production of “Munting Saranggola” is the latest project under the My Child Matters (MCM) program, a public mobilization campaign to improve access to care of Filipino childhood cancer patients. 

Initially implemented in 2006, MCM has provided an extremely important framework for raising awareness on the curability of childhood cancer and for building capacity in low-income settings for early diagnosis, treatment and care.

Since 2006, MCM has improved the management of childhood cancer in the country. Late diagnosis of cancer was reduced from 70 to 30 percent, treatment abandonment is now at 10 percent from 80 percent, and survival rates have increased from 16 to 68 percent.

To celebrate these achievements, the cancer survivors who benefited from the MCM program, along with other patients from the PCMC cancer survivor group, were treated to a tour of the Avilon Zoo. 

The children, together with some employee volunteers from the Sanofi Blue Hands Volunteer Group, got to see more than 3,000 species of animals housed in Avilon, currently the largest zoological institution in the country.  

“Through this simple activity, we want to celebrate the triumph of pediatric cancer patients over their disease,” said lawyer Darwin Mariano, public affairs and communication director of Sanofi. 

“We salute their courage and at the same time, we want to send the message to other cancer patients that there is hope. That they too can be well and live a normal life,” Mariano added.

Additional grant

Recently, the PCMC, the lead implementer of MCM projects in the Philippines, was awarded by Sanofi Espoir Foundation with a new grant worth €200,000 to extend the ongoing childhood cancer projects under the global childhood cancer advocacy of the Union for International Cancer Control.

The fresh project called My Child Matters: The Global Improvement of Childhood Cancer Care in the Philippines aims to galvanize support of the public for a national comprehensive childhood cancer control and management plan, help build capacity of collaborating hospitals to treat pediatric cancer patients and organize multidisciplinary treatment teams, and develop standards for pediatric cancer treatment facilities and management protocols.