CANCER PATIENT APPEAL - Help a Mother, Save a Family

Thirty-nine year old Winnie Mou Solien from Gaire in Central province is a mother of five children, all between the ages of 3 and 16 years old.

According to her medical report presented by Dr David Kundi, Radation Oncology Registrar aat ANGAU, Winnie was referred to the Radiotherapy and Oncology Depart of ANGAU Memorial Hospital in Lae for adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy after she underwent radical hysterectomy at the Port Moresby General Hospital. 

She was initially seen at PMGH on the 26th of May 2016 at 40 weeks gestation of 6th pregnancy with an antepartum hemorrhage (genital bleeding during pregnancy from the 28th week) which eventually turned out to be cancer of the cervix.

The gynecology team in PMGH initially planned to do Caesarean Werthiem's hysterectomy (invasive cervical cancer) but she eventually went into spontaneous labour and delivery. She underwent radical radical hysterectomy on the 9th of June and noted that she had an early stage 2B cervical lesion 

Histology reports from the surgical specimen showed sections of well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), with pervascular involvement. Vaginal curf free of tumor and sections of lymph node showed 1 out of 3 tumor metastasis.

Winnie was referred to ANGAU on the 22nd November 2016 and she was presented to the the Radiotherapy (RT) and Oncology department clinic on the 2nd of December 2016. She was seen by the radiation oncologist and she was planned for radiotherapy treatment (External Beam Radiotherapy). Due to influx of patients during the month of November and December, the list of patients undergoing radiotherapy at ANGAU was full. Hence, she was booked to commence her treatment on the 4th January 2017.

"We resumed her radiotherapy on the 4th of January 2017. Our treatment was definitive radiotherapy. She was prescribed a total dose of 50.4Gy in 28 fraction External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT). 4 field technique using Cobalt 60 machine", the medical report stated.

According to Post Courier report dated February 2nd 2017, Doctor John Niblett, the only radiation oncologist currently in PNG, the late stage two of cervical cancer is not curative through surgery. He says if surgery is done, the cancer will come back.

Dr Niblett said radiation theraphy of cervical cancer at stage two is 60% curable. stage three is 35-45% curablea nd stage four is 15% curable.

Winnie now needs to raise K50,000 in the next four weeks for urgent overseas radiation treatment. This is while waiting for the National Government to confirm when the next radiation oncologist will be replaced after the previous oncologist left in December 2016.

Winnie's husband Jerry Solien says there is no specialist oncologist available to carry out radiotherapy treatment on his wife.

Mr Solien left his job in 2016 to look after his wife and had so far spent about K6,000 to bring his wife to Lae to seek treatment at the ANGAU cancer facility. He is now faced with a massive task of raising K50,000 for his wife to recieve treatment at a hospital in Manila Philipines. The K50,000 is for the treatment alone and does not include travel and living allowances which are expected to total up to K100,000.

For more details to assist, you can call Mr Solien or his younger sister on 75349282 and 79166279.

Donations can be made to account number 6001460758, Westpac Bank, Waigani branch, under account name Gini Segana Katrina Solien.