Retinoblastoma in Kenya
Retinoblastoma is an aggressive eye cancer affecting babies and young children.
Retinoblastoma is highly curable, and 98% of children survive in high-income countries.
In Kenya in 2008, 3 in 4 children treated in Nairobi died due to lack of awareness and poor access to timely, appropriate medical care. We estimated national survival at less than 15%. This experience is typical of low- and middle-Income countries.
Most children who are cured have one eye surgically removed to protect their life; many with cancer in both eyes have both eyes removed. Timely surgery gives the child the best chance of cure.
Resources are available to save sight in Nairobi when the cancer is diagnosed early. Until recently, most children in Kenya whose eyes were saved had severe or complete, irreversible loss of sight.
Today, 3 in 4 children treated in Nairobi are cured, and survival has soared across the country.
Earlier diagnosis and advancing medical care means more opportunities to save children’s eyes and sight.
And Kenya now leads Africa in providing child life and family supports during treatment and beyond.
Our Vision: Life and sight for every child, Survivor, and Family!
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 (WE C Hope) helps improve early diagnosis, advance medical care, and meet the unique needs of affected families and survivors worldwide.
Our Shared Mission
World Eye Cancer Hope is committed to raising awareness and education around early diagnosis of retinoblastoma. We advocate for timely access to treatment, evidence-based care, and tailored psychosocial support for affected children, adult survivors, their families, and healthcare providers around the world.
We achieve this by:
- Educating the public and healthcare workers about retinoblastoma and second primary cancers to achieve early detection, timely diagnosis, and rapid referral to specialist care.
- Establishing family support programs that reduce practical, emotional, financial and social burdens and improve access to essential care.
- Empowering families, survivors, researchers, the global eye care and cancer communities, the imaging industry, and policymakers to develop sustainable, high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care.
We work from grassroots to national level, empowering communities and medical teams to vault diverse challenges so each child can receive best possible care. We encourage families, survivors, the eye care and cancer communities, imaging industry, health care policymakers and researchers to be active leaders in developing high quality sustainable care.
With your help, we are creating a bright future for all affected by childhood eye cancer, throughout life. And with your help, we will reach a day when no one suffers needlessly because of this highly curable cancer.
Find out how our partnership evolved from love for one child, Kenya’s first childhood cancer NGO, focused on eye cancer, to partnership with a new national charity for all children with cancer.
Learn about our work to improve care for children with eye cancer, from awareness campaigns and national best practice guidelines for care, to family support and collaborative research.
Contact the Kenya Childhood Cancer Trust
We encourage our friends in Kenya to support the KeCCT. To donate, fundraise for or volunteer with the organization, or for further information about its work, please contact the Kenya Childhood Cancer Trust directly.
