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00:00 Sunday is World Cancer Day, an occasion to shed light on and raise awareness for a cancer-free society and future.
00:06 It's also a day to focus on innovative techniques that can help in the ongoing battle against this group of diseases.
00:12 One of those people leading the fight is Nancy Gitoito,
00:16 founder of Limao Cancer Connection in Nairobi.
00:20 Nancy, thanks so much for joining us right now.
00:26 Exactly, what do you do at the Limao Cancer Connection and how is it appropriate for
00:32 raising awareness today of all days?
00:35 Thank you very much, my name is Nancy Gitoito. I run a non-profit called Limao Cancer Connection. Limao means lemon,
00:45 so we help breast cancer patients make a lemonade out of their cancer journey by providing them with resources
00:51 such as the knitted prosthetics that give them dignity and that self-esteem to continue with life even after losing a breast.
00:58 The other thing we do is education and providing them with psychosocial support group that help them fight this disease in a collective,
01:04 supportive, safe environment.
01:07 Yes, so this day is very important to us because it's a commemoration for
01:13 us to remember that cancer exists and we're all in this emotional journey together.
01:18 I started Limao after losing my mother,
01:21 so it's a special day to
01:23 talk about the challenges that the patients are going through and how we can engage the government in fixing the system.
01:29 You speak from personal experience. It's quite difficult to find people who haven't been affected by this awful disease.
01:38 Where are we in the fight as a
01:41 species against cancer?
01:45 Well, I think living here in San Francisco,
01:49 I realize there's quite a lot of progress in terms of screening,
01:54 diagnosis, treatment.
01:57 I do engage UCSF here and there's a lot of progress in the diagnosis and treatment,
02:04 maybe because of technology. While in Kenya, I think there's quite a little bit of some mileage,
02:10 but we still have a long way to go in terms of the corruption that has been going on in the country.
02:16 We don't have enough oncologists. We don't have enough human resources,
02:22 resources as well as radiotherapy machines,
02:26 the radiotherapy
02:29 machines are just like six of them, the whole country, you know.
02:33 So I think the government should really pay attention and the numbers that we have today are really alarming.
02:40 Over 44,000 of
02:42 diagnosed patients are
02:45 new diagnosis, new diagnosis is happening every year in Kenya and these numbers are quite alarming.
02:52 Not even withstanding the number of the misdiagnosis cases because of machines that are not well
02:59 functioning well or the personnel that is not able to read
03:04 the diagnosis. So there's a lot of negligence and misdiagnosis cases in Kenya.
03:10 But I know there's,
03:13 what is it called? There's a National Cancer Association that is really doing a lot of good stuff
03:18 with the new management. So we hope to see some progress and lower the death rates in Kenya.
03:26 You have quite a unique position of working in Kenya and in San Francisco.
03:32 What do you think the two places can learn from each other in the fight against cancer?
03:38 And what different aspects can we be looking at across the board around the world?
03:43 So what we need to borrow a leaf from
03:49 first-world countries like America is integrity.
03:52 We have a lot of corruption cases where the doctors in Kenya are more into profit-making
04:00 as opposed to putting the health of the patients ahead and
04:04 recognizing the poverty rate in Kenya.
04:07 The patients that we work with are very, very poor. These are patients who survive on a
04:12 dollar, less than a dollar every day. So a cancer diagnosis
04:16 literally is a death sentence to them.
04:19 For example, mammograms. Mammograms should be able to be free.
04:24 So right now with the National Health Insurance Fund that was there, there's all these
04:30 funds, embezzlement that really had been called out.
04:33 But it's like we're just recycling the same people.
04:37 The government should do a better job in terms of
04:40 implementing all these resources.
04:43 There's a new social health insurance fund, which is quite promising.
04:49 I understand it's going to cover the diagnosis, the screening, and also the patients can be able to
04:56 utilize the fund once their health fund is over.
05:01 So it's called the Social Health, it's by Social Health Authority.
05:05 And it's called the Social Health Insurance Fund.
05:09 Once they have the chronic diseases fund, once it's exhausted, they can be able to use this fund.
05:14 But the problem is we always talk about all these amazing things that the country is doing.
05:19 But the implementation is where the problem lies in.
05:24 The corruption in Kenya is really, really at a level where it's affecting families and we're losing a lot.
05:29 And, you know, with the statistics, 44,000 people dying every day and, you know, almost half of them,
05:38 you know, the diagnosis and half of them dying.
05:41 The data is really alarming.
05:43 So I hope we can also implement the data, the way the first world countries like UCSF, John Hopkins,
05:51 they have very good data collection and data monitoring and evaluation.
05:57 We don't have that in Kenya.
05:58 It's quite a hot mess.
05:59 Well, we do hope that hot mess under William Ruto does improve in the years to come in Kenya.
06:06 Thank you so much for joining us.
06:08 And with those important messages, Nancy Gitoito for joining us.
06:12 Nancy is the founder of Limau Cancer Connection in Nairobi.
06:16 And on this Cancer Awareness Day, we wish you a pleasant day here on France 24.
06:22 That's all the news for now.
06:23 Please join us for more coming up in just a bit.