Consumer goods and personal healthcare products manufacturer, PZ Cussons Ghana, has officially launched its child cancer awareness campaign dubbed ‘Say Yes to Life.’
In an agreement signed between the company and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, PZ will donate 20 pesewas from every piece of Camel and Carex range of products sold on the Ghanaian market to support the Childhood Cancer Unit of the hospital.
The Managing Director of PZ Cussons Ghana and East Africa, Sekar Ramamoorthy, said the gesture forms part of the company’s commitment to its corporate social responsibility, to positively impact lives in communities where it operates.
Mr. Ramamoorthy said the company will continue to collaborate with the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), and other stakeholders to ensure that Ghana’s childhood cancer rate of 1:500 is decreased significantly while eliminating the high treatment cost the disease places on families.
The Chief Executive Officer of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Opoku Ware Amponsah, lauded PZ Cussons for the initiative and pledged to continue collaborating with the company to provide care and treatment for children diagnosed with cancer.
He called on the media to support the initiative by educating the public to understand that childhood cancer can be cured especially through early detection and proper treatment by medical experts.
Mr. Selassie Wemegah, father of an 8-year-old cancer survivor, whose treatment was funded by PZ Cussons, appealed to the government to include childhood cancer on the list of ailments catered for by National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to decrease the financial burden on parents and save the lives of the most vulnerable in society.