No more pain! No more loss!
An appeal by the International Confederation of Parent and Survivor Organisations
Childhood Cancer International, the Association “Children with Oncohaematological Diseases”,
No more pain! No more loss!
Sofia, Bulgaria, 15 February 2019: International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD), established in 2002 by Childhood Cancer International (CCI), is marked all over the world every year on 15 February. CCI — a global confederation of 171 members from 88 countries, including the Association “Children with Oncohaematological Diseases” — is committed to working with its international partners, including the International Health Organisation, SIOP and others, towards a common goal: reducing deaths from childhood cancer and eliminating the pain and suffering associated with the disease.
On 28 September, at the UN General Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced its new global initiative to close the gaps in childhood cancer survival between low-, middle- and high-income countries. Every year more than 300,000 children up to the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer around the world. About 8 in 10 of these children live in middle- and low-income countries, where the cure rate is about 20%. This is in stark contrast with high-income countries, where more than 80% of children are cured of the most common childhood cancers.
WHO’s target for childhood cancer is to eliminate the pain and suffering of children fighting the disease and to achieve at least a 60% chance of lasting remission for all children with malignant diseases worldwide by 2030. This means doubling the current survival rate and saving nearly 1,000,000 children’s lives over the next ten years.
On International Childhood Cancer Day we come together to make the fight against childhood cancer a national and global health priority, in support of WHO’s global goals. In 2019 the campaign runs under the slogans “No more pain” and “No more loss” for children with oncohaematological diseases and their families. To reach this goal, governments, health services, industry, parent support groups and society need to support and ensure early and accurate diagnosis, access to life-saving essential medicines, access to appropriate, high-quality treatment and the right to treatment without pain and suffering — and, when a cure cannot be achieved, the right to lose the battle without pain.
Together, on International Childhood Cancer Day, we want to raise our voices and imagine the day when THERE WILL BE NO MORE PAIN AND NO MORE LOSS for children with cancer, wherever in the world they live.