“It is very important that these awareness campaigns against childhood cancer are carried out, since it has a higher incidence than is commonly believed and has a high impact on family and social life,” affirmed the local Secretary of Health, Enrique Rifourcat.
“During all of last year, in the context of the pandemic, from the Commune we carried out the Doná Vida en tu Barrio campaign, where we invited neighbors to donate blood, learn CPR, register in the Bone Marrow Donor Registry and get advice on plasma donation, which are all tools that the different health areas need for oncological treatments”, Rifourcat recalled.
Joining this campaign, the Commune seeks to inspire that each person can choose their way of helping and contributing from their place, emphasizing how to promote social participation of help and transformation, even with small actions.
From the Municipality they explained that the color yellow is used in the world to raise awareness about the importance of the challenges faced by children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment. That is why the slogan is #AmarilloxEllos, an initiative promoted by the civil association “El Otro Me Importa” that raises awareness about childhood and adolescent cancer.
Hair donation for cancer wigs
As a complement to this initiative, the Municipality will carry out a solidarity day of hair collection next Monday, February 21, to make wigs for cancer patients at the Malvinas Islands Cultural Center.
The activity will take place in two shifts (from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.), with the participation of more than 20 volunteer stylists, who will make cuts on the spot. It should be noted that in order to donate hair, it must have a minimum length of 20 cm, be clean and dry.
In Argentina, approximately 1,400 cases of childhood cancer are diagnosed each year, that is, between three and four boys and girls under the age of 15 are diagnosed per day. The survival rate is 72% of patients up to five years, and an incidence of 150 new cases per million children aged 0 to 14 years.
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