Earlier this year, Dr Scanlon, a cancer specialist from the Childrens Cancer Hospital in Dar es Salaam, came to speak to us about her work and to thank us for the support we had provided. Fr. Des had asked us to provide desperately needed drugs for the sick children. The congregation had collected and friends of Fr. Des had arranged purchase and delivery of generic drugs direct to Tanzania. Recently extra monies had been appealed for when a drug shipment was held in a bonded warehouse until all delivery costs were paid.
When Dr. Scanlon arrived in Dar es Salaam she found a Government funded hospital with lots of beds, lots of sick children and lots of diseases, but very little with which to treat them. Often, when a diagnosis was made and a course of treatment decided on, the sick childs family would be given a prescription for necessary drugs which they could not afford, so the disease would run its course.
Today, although the hospital has twice the number of patients (it is the only one in the entire country for children with cancer) the children are all receiving the treatment they need and so more of them survive! The cost of the drugs has been provided by friends in both Ireland, where Dr Scanlon trained, and here in Chipperfield, where we discover that Dr. Trish Scanlons best friend is a Cantwell cousin!
The £1000 raised at Fr. Dess memorial Dinner will pay for the nurses overtime for the next 3 months. Normally this is met from Dr. Scanlons personal account.
The few moments she spent telling us about her work gave us all a high regard for Dr. Scanlon herself, which was probably the last thing on her mind, and the conviction that the money we sent was well used.