Cancer is a Runaway Train

In October, we launched the AfrOx film competition, giving amateur film-makers the brief of making a short film to raise awareness about cancer in Africa.

At present, cancer kills more than 7 million people per year and is responsible for more deaths worldwide than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.  It is estimated that if no action is taken, the situation will continue to deteriorate and by 2020 it is expected that there will be 16 million new cases per year.  70% of these new cases will occur in the developing world.

As Alan Milburn, former UK Secretary of State for Health and Chairman of AfrOx, described it,
"The rising incidence of cancer in Africa is like a runaway train coming down the track."

It was this "runaway train" that the competition winners, Hazel Taylor and Ben Donaldson used as the basis of their winning video...



The video was launced on World Cancer Day, in association with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), as part of the Cancer Prevention 4 Africa campaign.

To find out more about the campaign, click here.

Volunteers at AfrOx

AfrOx's work would not be possible without the support of our team of volunteers. AfrOx employs only two people - and they manage and oversee the implementation of our projects. Everyone else works voluntarily. The AfrOx Advisory Council comprises of twenty leading experts from the fields of health, business and media who design and oversee AfrOx’s projects on a pro bono basis. In addition, we have medical volunteers who lead our training programmes in Africa. Our Fundraisers, Administrator and Accountant are also volunteers. The vast majority of AfrOx’s work could not be achieved without the help of our volunteers. We would like to thank them for their invaluable support. Watch the short video below to find out more about our volunteers.

Professor David Kerr Discusses AfrOx's Work

In this video, Professor David Kerr discusses AfrOx's work, the growing problem of cancer in Africa and what AfrOx is doing to help.

Welcome to the AfrOx blog

By 2020 there are expected to be 16 million new cases of cancer every year, 70 per cent of which will be in developing countries.

African countries are the least able of all developing countries to cope, and in most cases a diagnosis of cancer leads to a painful and distressing death.  AfrOx believes that the time to take action is NOW.

Our mission is to partner with African countries and help them to implement comprehensive cancer care and prevention programmes.

On this blog you can follow our progress, meeting the faces behind the programmes. You can read posts from the doctors and nurses providing vital training in Ghana, find out the latest developments in the Oxford office, and keep up to date with each of our programmes.

 We believe that cancer in Africa IS a disease that can be tackled. But it won’t happen on its own. We hope that you will join us as we try to achieve this goal.

To find out more about who we are and what we do, visit our website.