COUNTRY / PROBLEM
Year by year, the number of people battling against malignant tumours (which are one of the most frequent causes of death in Poland) is increasing. A special group of patients are pregnant women with cancer. Their growing number is often explained by the fact that women more and more often decide to become mothers later, and, at the same time, malignant tumours affect younger and younger people. In Poland, no official statistics are kept that would show how many pregnant women suffer from malignant tumours, but Fundacja Rak’n’Roll-Wygraj Życie! estimates that over 300 become ill every year.
Cancer coexisting with pregnancy is still a taboo subject. It is believed that pregnancy can harm a mother who suffers from cancer, and that chemotherapy will have a negative impact on the health of the child. In fact, effective oncological treatment can now be carried out without harm to the child, but it requires an early diagnosis and professional help. Dr Jerzy Giermek, former head of the Medical Treatment Ward of the Breast Cancer and Reconstructive Surgery Clinic at the Oncology Center in Warsaw, who has been treating pregnant women with cancer for years, says: “Our girls give birth to large, healthy children. So far none of them has been born with a defect”.
ORGANISATION
Fundacja Rak’n’Roll-Wygraj Życie! Aims at improving the quality of life of women and men battling against the disease, while changing the way of thinking (and talking) about cancer in the society. Rak’n’Roll’s activities make it easier for cancer patients to undertake treatment consciously and go through their illness with dignity.
In the case of pregnant women with cancer, the overriding goal of Rak’n’Roll is to provide them with proper oncological care, i.e. to enable treatment while ensuring safe development of the unborn children. Cancer has a strong impact on all aspects of life, which is why Rak’n’Roll also provides psychological care to its beneficiaries and conducts various projects, such as providing wigs made of natural hair, organising styling workshops and running joint sports activities.
PROJECT
At the request of Rak’n’Roll, Kulczyk Foundation funded the renovation of some of the waiting rooms at the clinic of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute – Oncology Center in Warsaw. This was a continuation of the “Poczekalnie Onkologiczne” programme, thanks to which it was possible to renovate waiting rooms in oncology hospitals in several Polish cities.
