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Dr. Hessling (left) and Wharin (right) together with hospital staff
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings from the U.S. – now on the eve of departing once again for Cameroon. In the context of returning for leave, I had the privilege of attending the Triennial Conference held in Sacramento last month. This afforded an opportunity to reconnect with many of the NAB family.
Shortly before leaving Cameroon, I attended a Childhood Cancer Symposium sponsored by the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) in the regional capital of Bamenda. The symposium focused on early diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children – with a focus on Burkitt’s lymphoma. Named for the physician who first described this malignancy, Burkitt’s lymphoma is a common and devastating childhood cancer which is very common in our setting. As a long-term missionary, one could not help reflecting on how events over the last two decades had brought us to the present.
The need for effective diagnosis and treatment of Burkitt’s lymphoma has been apparent since the time of my arrival to Cameroon in 1992. Around the year 2000, a physician from the UK by the name of Peter McCormick, while visiting BBH, took a unique interest in children suffering from Burkitt’s lymphoma. Our biggest impediment at the time related to lack of funds, not just for treatment of these children, but also for follow-up.
Dr. McCormick reached out to two other physicians – another family physician from the UK by the name of Paul Wharin and a pediatric oncologist from South Africa by the name of Peter Hessling. Over the past 12 years our oncology colleague, Dr. Hessling, has worked diligently to develop a chemotherapy protocol for children with Burkitt’s lymphoma appropriate to our setting. Of course, even with financial constraints a high priority, the cost of cancer chemotherapy is often prohibitive. In recognition of that challenge, our two collaborators from the UK, Dr.’s McCormick and Wharin, have labored to establish a trust to provide the necessary funding for our Burkitt’s children.
The collaboration of these men with our African staff has yielded some remarkable results. Where 2 decades ago the cure for this malignancy was significantly less than 20%, now with appropriate chemotherapy and follow-up, 60% of children are long-term survivors. As reported during the symposium, CBC Health Board Hospitals have now treated over 1,000 children with Burkitt’s lymphoma.
An adolescent girl with Burkitt’s lymphoma, before and after treatment.
Of considerable interest is that one of our colleagues from the UK, Dr. Wharin, is from Kettering Baptist Church in Kettering, England. Kettering Baptist Church was instrumental in founding the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792. Some 50 years later, in 1844, this society commissioned Alfred Saker as the first missionary to Cameroon. And now Dr. Wharin, too, heralds from Kettering for the same purpose.
Young boy with Burkitt’s lymphoma, before and after treatment.
Along these lines, Dr. Wharin often expresses appreciation of the CBC Health Board Mission statement, which is based on Matthew 9:35-36. The statement reads in part…
“The Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board seeks to assist in the provision of care to all who need it as an expression of Christian love and as a means of witness in order that they might be brought to God through Jesus Christ.”
It is a true privilege to offer care to many of these precious children in the name of The King of Kings. Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel.
With Gratitude,
Julie Stone