Oxford’s dreaming spires, seen from Boar’s Hill. Picture by Shelley Hoffmire.
Our Vision and Mission
Every two hours, another child dies from curable eye cancer.
More than 10 children every single day.
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. These discrepancies have led to a global survival rate estimated to be less than 40%.
Retinoblastoma has lifelong impacts including sight loss, increased risk of second primary cancers, and risk of survivors’ children also having eye cancer.
Low awareness, difficulty accessing specialist care and tailored support, and limited 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.
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 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 provide patients, families, and survivors a space to connect through online communities, events, and the One Retinoblastoma World conference.
- 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.
Find out how WE C Hope evolved from focus on one child to the pursuit of life and sight for every child with retinoblastoma around the world.
Learn about our work to improve care for children with eye cancer in Africa, our awareness campaigns, family support and global collaboration for evidence based care.
Meet Our Team
Meet the people dedicated to improving care for children, survivors and their families affected by retinoblastoma through our activities.
Online, by post, while searching the web or shopping… There are lots of ways you can donate to help us save the lives and sight of many precious children.
Experience the FUN in sharing hope with others by hosting a fundraiser, or join an event to help bring life and sight to children around the world.
Find out our current volunteer needs and how you can help. We would love to talk with you about opportunities that fit you and your schedule.
We welcome your questions and feedback. Please read the highlighted information before contacting us about concerning photographs or help for a child.
