Marianne
Naafs-Wilstra, vice-chairman of ICCCPO
Your Imperial Highnesses, Professor Lie and members of the Board of SIOP, professor
Tsuchida and members of the local organising committee, ladies and gentlemen,
It is with gratitude and great pleasure that I convey greetings from the International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations to all participants in this 30th meeting of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology.
This International Confederation - known affectionately as Icky-poo, an appropriate moniker for an organisation concerned with children’s responses to chemotherapy and related treatments and hospitalisations, is the international platform of local and national parent organisations and advocates for children with cancer world wide.
Childhood cancer can not be treated by a single specialist in solitude. It demands a multidisciplinary approach, where the members of the health care team are the experts in the disease and its treatment, and the parents and children are the experts insofar as their unique nature and needs are concerned. It also demands international co-operation, the creation of networks, exchange of knowledge and experiences, and mutual support.
The annual SIOP meeting is the outstanding place for such an exchange. This exchange should reach across the boarders of professions and include physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers as well as parents, thus expressing the collective caring, energy and solidarity.
We are all involved in the care of children with cancer, and work together on either a local, national or international level, towards one common goal: curing children with cancer, minimising the medical and psychosocial side effects, and achieving full rehabilitation of survivors.
The ICCCPO represents the parents of those children, their primary caregivers and advocates, and is a professional partner in the discussion of psychosocial and communicational aspects.
The ICCCPO perspective also emphasises the need for greater awareness of the facts that while childhood cancer can be cured 70% of time, this is happening only in economically wealthy nations. In poorer parts of the world, where 80% of the childhood cancer diagnoses occur, similar diseases are being cured only 20% of the time – inadequate medical financing, lack of adequate medication, lack of up-to-date training and supportive services, and poor public health and nutritional conditions account for this tragedy.
On behalf of the thousands of parents of children with cancer throughout the world, I do express the wish that on an international level we together, SIOP and ICCCPO, can make a change for those children with cancer and their families who are living in less privileged countries.
The SIOP meeting offers a unique opportunity. Don’t let it slip away. Let us seize this chance to meet, talk, exchange and discuss. And let us, professionals and parents join forces in order to improve the quality of life of children with cancer and their families, everywhere.