KBTH approved the naming of the Isolation ward at Rebecca Akufo Addo PICU to be named after the late childhood cancer ambassador

The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has granted approval for its isolation ward at Rebecca Akufo-Addo PICU for infectious children to be named after the late Breanna Fosua Addai, a Childhood Cancer Ambassador for Ghana who died on 3rd August 2022 aged nine, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, after battling with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) for about two years.

A childhood cancer foundation established in her memory, the Breanna Memorial Childhood Cancer Foundation, wrote to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to request for the adoption of the ward.

The Executive Director of the Foundation, Solomon Addai, said the adoption of the ward was to support children on admission financially by helping to pay for some of their laboratory tests, and the service charge, among others, which altogether put a lot of financial burden on the parents of children living with cancer. He said the Foundation will also pay for the maintenance of the ward to ensure the ward remained in good condition.

“When little Breanna was alive, she was mostly admitted to the isolation ward at the Rebecca Akufo-Addo Private Intensive Care Unit and wished that an NGO would be set up in her name and would adopt the ward to support children living with cancer,” Solomon Addai said.

Addai said through activities to be organized by the NGO, an annual target of GH¢100,000 would be raised to support the children who are usually transferred from the Oncology Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to the ward for intensive care.

He made a cash donation of GH¢3,000 to support children living with cancer at the Paediatric Oncology Unit as the world commemorates International Childhood Cancer Day. He called on individuals and civil society organsations to help raise funds and support children living with cancer in the country in any ways possible.

Dr Ernestina Schandorf, an oncologist who received the donation on behalf of the Head of child health department at KBTH, Lorna Awo Renner thanked the foundation for the gesture.

The late Breanna until her death advocated for a lot of interventions to be carried out for children with cancer in the country. Some of her calls were for the incorporation of childhood cancers into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which was successfully facilitated by the First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo.

Breanna also made an appeal to international leaders to intervene for a ceasefire during the war between Russia and Ukraine, to help save the lives of children with cancer in Ukraine. Her plea was considered as more than 20 Ukrainian children with cancer were airlifted to the United Kingdom to undergo lifesaving cancer treatment on the National Health Service (NHS).