Cancer and Available Treatment for Belizeans

Only this week, a distraught mother took to Facebook to speak of the plight her nine-year-old child was enduring because she had no access to bone marrow treatment. While bone marrow treatment is advanced specialized care that is available in other countries, Longsworth says there is a general hospital in Merida, Mexico where children can seek help through the Ministry of Health. It’s a service that dates back to around 2010 and worked well for years, but one that Longsworth says might be taking on a new dimension now that the MOU has expired.

Laura Tucker-Longsworth

Laura Tucker-Longsworth, President, Belize Cancer Society

“In Belize, we have Oncologist. We have Dr. Ellsworth Grant, who works out of the Belize Cancer Center in Dangriga. And we have a  resident oncologist at the Karl Huesner Memorial Hospital, Dr. Yacab.  They are adult oncologists. And so, back then, the Belize Cancer Center in Dangriga worked with the government of Belize. And along with a very passionate Pediatric oncologist out of the hospital, Horan in Merida, who had been treating Belizean n children and reaching out to us to really give them more support. And that’s way back then, uh, in 2015, the Social Security Board. I worked with the then CEO of the Ministry of Health, along with the BBCS, the Cancer Society and the Cancer Center in Dangriga, and approached the Social Security Board, and they gave us like three-year grant or so to help the children to get to treatment immediately. And those children they go over there. They get a lot of support. It’s not well known in the country that that children can be referred to the hospital her on to date the Ministry of Health still is paying those bills for those children at the Horan. We don’t know what 2024 will bring, because there are going to be new arrangements in place, and we have not been informed, officially, as yet. In that, the lady that you referred to and you shared the information with me, that is not an uncommon situation. Her child needed bone marrow biopsy, and so she, where will she get that money from? There’s – none of us in the country, the Belize Cancer Society, we certainly do not have those kinds of funds. Those funds go into the thousands, 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars. And even now, there’s a child in the private hospital in Merida. And we have been trying between ourselves and the Cancer Center in Dangriga trying to help the mother to pay the bills. The child is doing pretty good right now, coming out and will transition to the Huron to continue care. It needs, I feel for that mother, because she is not alone in that dilemma. Where the system can take you, it’s up to chemotherapy and radiation and surgery for those children at Horan. When you need a bone marrow biopsy, you have to go to a specialized center and you’ve got to be supported. Either somebody, you get a sponsor, the institution sponsors you and so on. And this is the kind of thing that as a country we need to do. We can no longer leave our people wandering all over the place, crying for help. Where our children are concerned, we have to make sure that they get to care, cancer care. They deserve it. It’s a human right for these children to survive. That MOU has expired. So then the Ministry of Health is now embarking on a similar kind of arrangement. We have not been informed. As to what that arrangement is to be.”