Our donation to the Social- Funding Association Kinderkrebs-Zentrum Hamburg e.V.

Kinderkrebs-Hamburg

Every year in Germany, about 2.000 children fell ill up to their 18th. Year of cancer, about 140 in Hamburg and its surroundings. The children's cancer center Hamburg is one of the largest of its kind in Germany, where about 600 children are treated stationary and outpatient every year. Therapy can take weeks or months and requires a variety of hospital stays, making the station a home for families on time. Thanks to improved treatment options, about 80 percent of children can be cured today. But even though the chances of survival have improved, the disease is and remains an extreme burden for the child and his family. In addition to the so-called severe side effects of therapy and the concern for delays, psychosocial problems also affect families who are difficult to cope with without support. The aim of the support community is to support children and their families during this difficult time and to significantly improve the living situation through the support projects.

1. Patient

Good and intensive medical care is a prerequisite for the successful treatment of young patients. Additional donations will create the conditions for optimal treatment at the Children's Cancer Centre in Hamburg. Social security, the State or the UKE should not be discharged from their duties. The funding community assists where gaps remain and decides, in close coordination with the clinic management, to support projects such as additional doctors and nursing staff, the purchase of medical equipment, equipment for play and living rooms or the promotion of pilot projects, such as the post-cancer period TIDE for children and adolescents or a bridge doctor for palliative care.

2. Psychosocial assistance

But not only medical treatment is important, psychosocial assistance is also essential and creates an environment that promotes healing, supports children and their parents and enables disease management strategies. For this reason, the funding group, financed from donations, bears the personnel costs of a music therapist, an art therapist, a media educator, a psychologist, a social educator, a sports therapist, a student auxiliary and a secretary in the psychosocial team of the children's cancer center Hamburg. In addition to medical care, the therapeutic offers strengthen the mental resources of patients. Depending on the disease situation, they serve to relax, distract, relieve stress, lighten the mood, mobilise and support motivation and self-esteem. At the same time, therapeutic offers should facilitate the return to everyday life and, for example, help with reintegration into school and social contacts. In order to avoid social isolation, depression or other psychological problems, it is already important during treatment to identify possible problems and to respond to them together with patients and families.

The support community supports families in need who are in financial distress as a result of their child's illness. Help is provided quickly and without bureaucracy. Approximately fifty applications are approved annually by the Community. A child's cancer is not a short-term issue. Often, during this period, a parent is unable to continue his or her work, resulting in financial bottlenecks which further burden families.

Three. Research Institute for Children's Cancer

Research is the strongest weapon in the fight against cancer in children. Children's tumours are different from adults and also require treatment concepts that are specifically tailored to young patients. Specific and targeted research into cancer in children is therefore necessary to derive better diagnostic and therapeutic procedures from it. Due to the low number of cases, funding and public attention for research into these diseases are limited, so child cancer research is particularly dependent on donor support. 2006 therefore founded the research institute Kinderkrebs-Zentrum Hamburg. Donations, sponsorships and private commitment made it possible to build this institution successfully within a short period of time. Here, the molecular foundations of childhood cancer are explored in order to allow a more patient-specific diagnosis, new targeted therapeutic approaches and reduced side effects. The Institute is accompanied by a Scientific Advisory Board and works closely with the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Heinrich-Pette Institute (HPI).

The funding community supports the Institute through budget grants and personnel costs for two Foundation professors, other scientists, doctoral students and technical assistants.

What does the Fundgemeinschaft Kinderkrebs-Zentrum Hamburg e.V.

For the 45-year period, the Association of Children's Cancer Centres Hamburg e.V. has been supporting the clinic for paediatric haematology and oncology at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), in short the Children's Cancer Center Hamburg. The non-profit association was founded 1975 by affected parents of children with cancer. The donations are used to achieve optimal patient care, to provide psychosocial assistance to affected families and to support the research institute Children's Cancer Center Hamburg. Under the slogan KNACK DEN KREBS, the funding community raises public awareness of the issue of cancer in children.