QRCS Launches Fundraising Campaign for Cancer Patients in Northern Syria

Under the slogan “Hope for Cure”, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched a fundraising campaign to ensure life-saving medical care for patients with cancer in northern Syria.

By raising QR 5,060,000 in donations, QRCS will be able to provide essential chemotherapy and immunotherapy medications for the benefit of 220 Syrian refugees and displaced people with cancer for a whole year.

QRCS allocated USD 1 million to procure quantities of medicines and diagnostic and therapeutic equipment as soon as possible, especially a positron emission tomography (PET) scanning device, which is used to detect a wide range of diseases, including cancer.

All the medical services provided under the project will be totally free of charge, as the poor patients cannot afford the high cost of treatment and other diagnostic services.

The project is implemented in partnership with the Idlib Governorate Hospitals Oncology Center. Operated by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), the hospital will provide lists of medicines and equipment needed for treatment and diagnosis, as well as a list of beneficiaries and their medical reports.

The Idlib Directorate of Health and local and international organizations will be involved in conducting studies and surveys on the current situation of the health sector in northern Syria.

Director of Relief and International Development Division at QRCS, Dr. Mohamed Salah Ibrahim commented, “For many years now, millions of Syrians have been displaced by the civil war. The brunt of the crisis was taken the most by cancer patients, who are desperate for intensive treatment, as well as financial and moral support, to survive such a deadly monster”.

“QRCS joins hands with the benevolent people of Qatar to launch a live-saving project to secure cancer medications for refugees and displaced people in northwestern Syria. Many of these are helpless children, women, and older persons whose sole hope is to get help from Allah and from donors. Lets pray that they might find physical and spiritual recovery after years of pain and suffering,” he explained.

According to official health statistics, there are over 3,000 cancer patients in northwestern Syria, and the number is increasingly growing, with an average of 1,100 new cancer cases being discovered annually.

Source: Qatar News Agency