Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Parents of young children in Oman are being asked to remain aware of the symptoms of childhood cancer, so that doctors and nurses will be able to catch it early and treat it in time.
With September being childhood cancer awareness month, the Royal Hospital has launched a drive across all of Muscat’s primary health centres until September 30, to provide education and awareness to parents and children who wish to know more about what symptoms parents should look out for in their children.
Speaking to Times of Oman, Aisha Al Habsi, a senior nurse in charge of the haematology department at Royal Hospital and one of the persons leading the initiative, said: “Often, we have parents who come to us saying that they don’t know what their child is suffering from, and that they didn’t know he or she had cancer because they didn’t know what to look for or that they seemed to be suffering from something else.”
“For example, we had one mother who complained about her small son suffering from a fever for some three days,” she recalled. “She kept giving her son Panadol but it never seemed to help him, and it only got worse. Her son used to often wake up in the night and he’d be sweating heavily, so she brought him to us the next day and that is when we confirmed that he unfortunately had lymphoma.”
Al Habsi advised parents to come to doctors if the original symptoms weren’t subsiding, instead of resorting to home remedies.
“If you see that your children are unable to complete their daily tasks properly, if they get tired quickly while doing work, if they complain of bone pain, for example, if they have a loss of appetite when they should normally be hungry, if they are losing weight rapidly, all of these are symptoms that parents should be on the lookout for if they feel something is suspicious,” she said.
“Unfortunately, when parents hear the word ‘cancer’, they immediately panic and they think it is a death sentence for their little one,” added Al Habsi.
“However, this is not the case, because we have treatment methods to help people. Also, whenever we approach parents to talk about cancer, we will never do so alone, but will also offer them counselling services with a psychologist or counsellor because we know what this can mean for parents.”
During the childhood cancer awareness drive, Al Habsi and her team will educate not just parents, but children as well.
“We have many interactive sessions for children, especially so that they can learn about the importance of good healthcare,”
she said.
“We have drawing lessons, painting competitions, there is an Indian dance session we have as well, and we also have a young Omani footballer who will showcase his skills to the children. We also have a company that will bring them small charged cars that they can drive around in so they can have some fun.”
“To parents, I would ask them to attend these awareness campaigns that we will be running throughout this week until Sunday, September 30, because an early diagnosis can sometimes make all the difference,” added Al Habsi.
“We would need to treat patients when they are still in stage one of cancer, but we have also received patients who are in more advanced conditions, such as stage two, stage three and even stage four.”
“There are many online materials available for parents to read, in both English and Arabic, so please read these and go through these because they are very helpful,” she said.
“Many of the simplest things that parents can do involve diets and lifestyle so I would ask them to follow these tips. We want to go to all the health centres in Muscat, as well as all the secondary healthcare hospitals in places such as Rustaq and Nizwa to educate people.”
