Our Impact: NCRP in the News
NCRP is proud to be an award-winning organization. Every news feature is an opportunity for us to advocate for health inequality awareness and equal access to treatment and care. Read the latest news and updates from our programs & fundraising activities here:
​Then four years later in the summer of 2022 she launched another organization called the Nigerian Cancer Relief Project where she builds care packages for kids with cancer.
”Basically our goal is to help provide health products to hospitals across Nigeria, but specifically Lagos University Teaching Hospital,” Fregene said....
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Apart from publishing her own book, Folakemi Fregene has also created her own oncology non-profit -- Nigerian Cancer Relief Project, NCRP. Using her own book as part of the chemotherapy care packages, Fregene has been able to provide hundreds of care packages to hospitals all over Nigeria.
Advancing Health Equity – Addressing Cancer Disparities
Of the estimated 300,000 who get cancer annually around the world, 80% live in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) and have a 10% — 30% chance of survival compared to 80% or more in high-income countries. Cancer is responsible for 72,000 deaths in Nigeria annually, with an accounted 102,000 new cases of cancer annually. In Nigeria, with a population of nearly 200 million people, complex diseases such as cancer are currently emerging as critical health care priority for the future In LMICs, including Nigeria, survival rates for pediatric cancers continue to hover around 30%. Arguably, one of the most significant barriers to improved survival of children diagnosed with cancer in Nigeria is the relatively high cost of cancer care, which is unaffordable for many families. Policies are needed to improve the affordability of health-care delivery for childhood cancer, including a focus on the adequacy of health insurance coverage and public health-related policies governing financial support targeting health-care delivery in the context of childhood cancer to improve outcomes
“Striving to decrease the health disparities between our underserved nations."
Folakemi Fregene, CEO
Overcoming Barriers
Despite the significant advances made in our understanding of cancer and how to treat it over the last hundred years, there are wide global disparities in access to cancer care and in who gets to benefit from cutting-edge cancer research.
Join the Fight for Change
We believe all people should have a fair and just opportunity to live a longer, healthier life free from cancer regardless of how much money they make, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or where they live.
Better Survival is Achievable
The reasons for this huge disparity between high income and low- and middle-income countries include late or missed diagnosis, lack of diagnostic facilities, lack of trained staff to manage the disease, lack of funds for treatment and high rates of treatment refusal and abandonment.
Our goal and unified message is “Better access to care for children and adolescents with cancer everywhere”. This message highlights the inequities and glaring disparity of access to care in most low- and middle-income countries where 80% of children with cancer live. Children and adolescents in Africa, Asia and Latin America and in parts of Eastern and Southern Europe do not yet have access to appropriate treatment including essential medicines and specialized care. Currently, where one lives often determines one’s chances of survival from childhood cancer.