United Nigeria Airlines , Society partner on fight against cancer ..... Airline to sensitize passengers , raise funds on board flight

 

 United Nigeria Airlines , Society partner on fight against cancer  

..... Airline to sensitize  passengers , raise funds on board flight 

United Nigeria Airlines, has entered into a partnership with the Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS) , as part of the concerted efforts and broader humanitarian strategy  to fight against the scourge of cancer in Nigeria with a push for early detection, raising of  funds as well as  securing easier access for treatment for patients.

At the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on Wednesday at the airline's office at the Lagos Airport, to formalize the partnership, its Chief Operating Officer , Mr. Osita Okonkwo, said the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative is geared towards supporting the activities of the Nigeria Cancer Society by providing a platform onboard its flights to appeal to passengers with compassion to voluntarily donate towards fighting the scourge of cancer.

Mr. Okonkwo hinted that through voluntary donations from generous  passengers and the company, the fight against cancer will be given the needed attention. 

He assured of the airline’s total commitment to the cause and expressed delight in the choice of NCS for the CSR.

He noted that cancer remains one of the most devastating health challenges facing Nigerians, affecting families across all social classes, and stressed that collective action from corporate organisations, government and individuals is needed to win the war against the disease. 

According to him, United Nigeria Airlines will leverage its wide network, platforms and passenger traffic to drive awareness and mobilise support for cancer prevention, screening and treatment.

 

Explaining the nature of the foundation, and how it plans to raise funds for the cause, Managing Director of UNA, Mazi Osita Okonkwo said passengers will book tickets the the option to make a voluntary contribution on the airline’s platform, adding that they can contribute as little as N1,000 and as much as N5,000 or N100,000.

Okonkwo, who said the donation is that is the first stage of the campaign, assured that the monies raised, all the donations raised, will go directly to the society or to an account designated by the society for this purpose of cause.

While appealing to Nigerians to donate to the cause.

He said: “As a company, as individuals as staff members, I think some of us have stories to tell about cancer whether its direct or indirect we’ve seen the news, we’ve had the news we’ve seen people who have been affected by this deadly disease, and it’s based on that that United Nigeria has decided to work with the Nigerian Cancer Society

“We are very excited to work with Nigeria Cancer Society in mounting a united campaign against cancer in Nigeria as the name of the tbe airline implies. Today is a remarkable day for us. We have a unique and innovative way of raising funds from the passengers that fly with us on a daily basis , we have looked at the programmers and activities of the society and we are very happy with them. We believe that they need to be supported, not only by UNA through its foundation but through the passengers that fly with us. Its a a unique way, you book a ticket, you have the option of making a voluntary donations on our platform. form. You can do as little as 1,000, you can do as much as you want, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000,

“All the monies raised, all the donations raised, we go directly to the society, to an account designated by the society for this purpose of cause they are experts in the fight against cancer but our position is that to fight cancer you have to start from early detection”, he said.

Okonkwo noted that if a patient ailment is detected early enough, he stands a very good chance of being treated and becoming cancer free, noting that the concept of cancer being a deadly terminal disease is when it is not detected at the very early stage.

“So, our primary focus will be at the early stage prevention and massive campaign and information sharing so that’s the first level, the second level is of course, there may be people whose ailment will not not be detected at early stage and they will need treatment. Successful treatments have been have been recorded across board. This is also a personal matter to some of us line I have mentioned here that we have our own personal story, I am a cancer survivor too”, he said.

In his speech, the President of the Nigeria Cancer Society, Prof. Abidemi Omonisi, thanked United Nigeria Airlines for the partnership.

 He stated that it was actually the airline that reached out to them for the partnership, even though they had reached out to different companies without getting the needed attention and support.

Prof. Omonisi described the gesture as timely and commendable, saying it demonstrates genuine corporate concern for the health and wellbeing of Nigerians.

He highlighted the challenges of handling cancer cases in the country, including late presentation, high cost of treatment, limited facilities and low awareness. He insisted that early detection is key to taking care of the situation, and urged Nigerians to go for regular screening and to seek medical attention promptly when symptoms appear.

He expressed optimism that the partnership will go a long way in saving lives, improving access to cancer care and giving hope to patients and their families across the country.

Both parties expressed confidence that the collaboration will yield positive results and serve as a model for other corporate organisations to support the fight against cancer in Nigeria.

Omonisi said the body had been fighting cancer over sixty years ago adding that it engages government and encourages organisations to rise to the fight against cancer.

While commending UNA for the bold step, he lamented infrastructure and funding gaps diminishing cancer care, adding that government does not have a strong policy on cancer.

“Even the federal government does not even believe that there is actually cancer. 60 years ago,  a group of researchers in the medical department actually started it based on the experience in Western countries. But they fell that this disease is strange to us in Nigeria, but  they started creating awareness about it. At that time, the federal  government of Nigeria, they don’t believe in that. There’s no policy of cancer but the Society continues to make sensationalization to the government, to individuals, organisations but. when the federal government saw that this thing they are talking about is real they started cooperating.”, he said.

The NCS boss, who said their objective, basically, is cancer education, explained that “the cancer that we have is not the same as what they have in developed countries because they are white, we are black. So in terms of genetics, we are not the same. That’s why most of the treatment that they have in Western countries does not really benefit our people. Part of my training, I did my training in the UK and in our centre in Leeds, we’ve seen patients that have three cancers. By the time they are 87, they are still alive. three cancers? why because they generate drugs and those drugs are used to do that but we are black , we’ve not done enough studies on many drugs where actually research were conducted on the whites.

He spoke of the need for proper and continuous screening to aid early detection and treatment.

“Therefore, it  means that none of those drugs we have minimal effect on our people so that’s why you said appreciate you know in our country just one cancer they are down in the middle of the therapy, none of them will survive but that’s the western country who have three or four cancers and they survive So, we’re actively involved in the science of cancer, because as I said, the society is actually funded by cancer researchers, so we’re actively involved in that. Screening is also part of what we do.

“Screening is very important because the only escape, of course that we have in developing countries is aggressive screening. You must be involved in screening. But if you screen, you pick up these cases early, and once you have any cases, there are a lot of things you can do in the country to actually save that patient.”, he added.