Talk about Big C to stay alive

Only half of the children in South Africa who get cancer are diagnosed with the disease, meaning many die unnecessarily.

Stigma surrounding cancer and myths about the disease are partly to blame for this undertreatment.

Speaking at a World Cancer Day event in Johannesburg yesterday, Childhood Cancer Foundation manager Adri Ludick said that globally 150 children out of every million developed cancer. In South Africa, the number of children diagnosed with cancer equals 70 out of every million per year.

"We know we are not seeing all the cancer cases," said Ludick.

"Children with brain tumours often develop slurred speech or fall over," she said, and as a result, people believe they are bewitched and hide them away.

The survival rate for childhood cancer when treatment is offered is 80%-85%, but children are being diagnosed too late.

Stigma does not affect only children. Health workers find that many myths thrive in South Africa.

That is why cancer organisations launched the Voice of Cancer Anti- Stigma Project yesterday.

Myths the cancer workers aim to dispel include:

• Wearing a bra causes cancer.
• Roll-on deodorant causes breast cancer.
• Only white people get cancer.
• Only black people get cancer.
• Men cannot get breast cancer.
• Children don't get cancer.
• Breast cancer is caused by carrying money in your bra, so only women get it.
• I'm going to die if I get cancer.

Cancer survivor David Mfeka said yesterday he was diagnosed with a larynx tumour in 2009. Initially, he was diagnosed with bronchitis and sent home from a clinic. .

But he read up on cancer symptoms and told nurses who had been turning him away that they needed to send him to a hospital.

Mfeka's message to people is: "Cancer knows no race. It is real. Talk about it."