Retinoblastoma (Rb) is the most common eye cancer of early childhood, affecting one or both eyes. Usually forming in the first two years of life, some babies are born with cancer already growing.
Cure is above 98% in High Income Countries, where most research takes place and the focus is saving sight. Most children with retinoblastoma live in Low and Middle Income Countries, where awareness and access to timely, appropriate medical care is limited. Global survival is estimated to be less than 40%.
Rb has lifelong impacts for many people, including sight loss, increased risk of second primary cancers, and risk of their children also having eye cancer.
Low awareness, access to specialist care and tailored support, and research globally leads to preventable stress and trauma, and suboptimal outcomes for many children, adult survivors, and families.
Thousands of curable children and adult survivors die each year.
Everyone deserves the best opportunities to overcome cancer, and to have a good quality of life during treatment, beyond cure, and when cure is not possible.
World Eye Cancer Hope helps improve early diagnosis, advance medical care, and meet the unique needs of affected families and survivors worldwide.
The Paris Charter
In 2000, the Charter of Paris was adopted during the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium. The Charter calls for
“an invincible alliance – between researchers, healthcare professionals, patients, governments, industry and media – to fight cancer and its greatest allies, which are fear, ignorance and complacency.”
Our Vision
We aspire to achieve early diagnosis; timely, appropriate medical care; and compassionate support for all children, survivors, and their families affected by retinoblastoma worldwide, throughout life.
Our Mission
Many precious lives will be saved by increasing retinoblastoma and second primary cancer early diagnosis, timely access to existing treatments, evidence based care, and tailored psychosocial support.
We are committed to bringing these opportunities to affected children, adult survivors, their families, and healthcare providers around the world; and ending preventable death, blindness, and suffering from this cancer, at all stages of life.
We achieve this by:
Educating the public and health workers about retinoblastoma and second primary cancers to achieve early detection, timely diagnosis, and rapid referral to specialist care;
Empowering the medical community to deliver sustainable, high quality, evidence-based care that gives each child and adult survivor the best possible opportunities and outcome.
Enabling family support programs that reduce emotional, social, practical, and financial burdens, and improve access to essential care.
We encourage families, survivors, medical professionals, researchers, the international eye care and cancer communities, imaging industry, health care policymakers and others to be active leaders in developing high quality, sustainable, patient-focused care.
We unite and inspire our supporters worldwide to champion everyone’s right to quality lifelong retinoblastoma care, cure, good health, dignity, love and understanding.
With your help, we can meet the needs of children with eye cancer, survivors, and their families across the globe. With your help, we are creating a bright future for acute and lifelong care. And with your help, we will reach a day when no child dies from retinoblastoma, no survivor dies from a second cancer due to late diagnosis, and no one experiences trauma because of this cancer.
Our Values
Our supporters, beneficiaries, volunteers and staff trust us to pursue activities that empower children, survivors, their families, medical professionals, and researchers to vault great challenges.
Our values below are the bedrock of WE C Hope, guiding us and holding us accountable in all that we do.
The Patient First, Always
All we are and do is motivated by our primary desire to bring quality care to each individual child, survivor, and family. We take bold but informed risks to protect and promote their complete wellbeing, throughout life. We pursue our goals for every person affected by retinoblastoma with conviction, courage and integrity.
We unite and inspire all stakeholders to champion every child’s right to special care and protection, quality medical treatment, good health, ongoing cancer care, survival and dignity, love and understanding, throughout life.
Excellence in Evidence Based Care
We promote dynamic innovation, under-pinned by solid evidence to achieve excellence in retinoblastoma care for all children, survivors, and their families worldwide. We strive to develop simple, creative solutions, adapting and enhancing them to meet diverse needs. Our programs do not replace statutory responsibilities – we help maximise the application and value of available resources and skills.
Equity: inclusion and access for all.
We are committed to supporting equitable access to diagnosis, medical and psychosocial care for all children, survivors, and families affected by retinoblastoma, regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, personal and cultural identity, or disability. We work to eliminate disparities in diagnosis, treatment, psychosocial support, and lifelong care, recognizing that every child, family, and survivor deserves the best possible outcomes and quality of life.
We believe in the power of lives experience to shape the future of retinoblastoma care. All families and survivors can be vital participants, advocates, and leaders in patient-driven research and policy. We work to ensure their voices are included and amplified in decision-making processes, as they uniquely understand the challenges of life with Rb, and needs of those affected.
We advocate for inclusive environments where survivors with sight loss are empowered as champions for their own care, their children’s care, and the broader retinoblastoma community.
Community: local - national - global.
From grassroots to national and global level, we build a strong community among all affected by retinoblastoma, to increase support and improve outcomes. We unite families, survivors, medical professionals, scientists, eye and cancer care advocates, the imaging industry, health care policymakers, our many supporters, and more to help enhance medical care and quality of life, build hope, and reduce burdens from this cancer, throughout life.
Collaboration – together, everyone achieves more.
We encourage everyone in our community to be collaborative leaders in developing high quality sustainable lifelong retinoblastoma care for all. We acknowledge that team effort broadens understanding, and leads to practical action that translates knowledge and evidence faster into optimal care.
We are committed to fostering a respectful, rewarding environment that promotes teamwork and personal growth. We learn from each challenge and grow stronger together, and we celebrate every success.
Sustainability
We seek to support the development of sustainable retinoblastoma care, both in resource limited and resource rich environments. We promote unbiased care; realistic treatment; and programs based on patient and family needs, and available human and material resources.
We support the development of reliable funding streams to underpin these programs. We encourage families and survivors, medical teams and surrounding communities to be active partners and leaders in this process.
We are committed to respecting and protecting the environment in all we do, to ensure future generations continue to enjoy this beautiful world. We do our best to work with suppliers and service providers whose activities reflect our concern for the planet, her diverse people, and all life.
