Oscar is a 6 year old boy. He lives with his parents and two siblings in Mangochi in southern Malawi. In June, Oscar’s mother noticed a swelling on his tummy. She took Oscar to the traditional village doctor who told her it was a disease of the spleen (Kapamba). He gave Oscar some herbs which he told them would make Oscar vomit. Three days after taking the herbs Oscar hadn’t vomited and started crying with pain. His grandmother took him to the local hospital but the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong and told them to go home. Oscar’s condition did not improve.

After another couple of visits to hospital he was eventually transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre – Malawi’s main teaching hospital. It was at the QECH that Oscar was diagnosed with Wilms tumour – a type of kidney cancer – by Professor Molyneux and her team. He was put on a nine week course of treatment involving surgery and chemotherapy. He stayed in hospital for three months and his family had to sell two goats to provide enough money to travel to and from hospital.    

With the support of a twinning partnership funded by World Child Cancer, Professor Molyneux has been developing an effective local treatment protocol for Wilms tumour. A twinning partnership transfers vital medical expertise between a hospital in a resource rich country and a hospital in a recourse poor country. Using surgery and relatively inexpensive chemotherapy drugs, survival rates can be increased from virtually nil to around 50% over a few years. Oscar has a couple of chemo sessions to go but he continues to make good progress.    

World Child Cancer is giving Oscar and other children in sub-Saharan Africa with Wilms tumour the hope of a bright future.   

Oscar at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital