Gifting hope to children with cancer!

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
Every week in South Africa, a child begins a long and exhausting journey to fight cancer. for many families supported by CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa, the greatest barrier to survival is not the availability of treatment, It Is the Cost of Getting There!
• Chemotherapy works.
• Radiation saves lives.
• But only if a child can reach the hospital.
When a parent cannot afford taxi fare, a life-saving appointment is missed. And when appointments are missed, survival chances decrease. At CHOC, we believe deeply and unequivocally: No child should miss treatment because a parent cannot afford transport. This belief drives our national Fuelling Hope Campaign on GlobalGiving, a focused initiative ensuring that transport costs never stand between a child and their chance at survival.

PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
During the reporting period of 1 March to 30 April 2026, CHOC provided 2,724 transport financial assistance grants to the value of R330,539/$19,976. Transport financial assistance was provided to vulnerable children and carers requiring support to access treatment, follow-up appointments, hospital admissions, and maintenance treatment visits at paediatric oncology and haematology units across South Africa.

OUTCOMES ACHIEVED
The programme successfully reduced financial barriers to treatment access by enabling children and caregivers to travel to life-saving treatment appointments that may otherwise have been missed due to affordability constraints.

KEY OUTCOMES ACHIEVED INCLUDE:
• Improved Treatment Adherence
• Transport assistance enabled beneficiaries to attend scheduled treatment appointments, chemotherapy sessions, follow-up consultations, and maintenance treatment visits, reducing the risk of treatment interruption.
• Reduced Risk of Treatment Abandonment
• By alleviating transport costs for vulnerable households, the programme reduced the likelihood of families discontinuing treatment due to financial hardship.
• Increased Access for Underserved Communities
• The programme supported families from rural and low-income communities who often travel significant distances to access specialised paediatric oncology services located in major urban centres.
• Reduced Financial Distress
• Transport assistance helped ease the financial burden on caregivers already facing loss of income, increased household expenses, and the emotional strain associated with a childhood cancer diagnosis.

COMMUNITY IMPACT
The programme contributed directly to equitable access to healthcare by ensuring that financial hardship did not prevent vulnerable children from receiving treatment. For many families, transport assistance represented the difference between attending or missing a critical treatment appointment. The continued demand for transport support highlights the ongoing socio-economic challenges experienced by families affected by childhood cancer. Through this intervention, CHOC was able to provide practical assistance that strengthened continuity of care and improved treatment access for some of South Africa's most vulnerable children.

In Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, CHOC is currently supporting a deeply vulnerable family facing an unimaginable double burden of illness. A mother, herself living with stage 4 breast cancer, is also the primary carer to her young child who has been diagnosed with T-cell high-risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). Both mother and child are on palliative and end-of-life treatment pathways, with the child currently receiving salvage chemotherapy aimed at slowing disease progression and providing comfort and stability. Despite their critical health conditions, the child must attend treatment twice a week at a paediatric oncology unit in Durban. However, the family faces significant barriers to accessing care. Due to their circumstances, the child cannot travel alone, yet the father is unable to accompany them as he risks losing his employment if he leaves work for prolonged periods. This leaves the mother, already physically weakened by her own illness, as the only possible caregiver to accompany her child to treatment. CHOC has stepped in to ensure that this family can continue accessing life-sustaining care. Through the Transport Financial Assistance Programme, CHOC covers the cost of travel to and from treatment twice weekly. In addition, the family receives food parcels to ease the burden of household food insecurity during this period of extreme vulnerability. Beyond material support, CHOC’s psychosocial team provides ongoing emotional and therapeutic support to help the family cope with fear, grief, exhaustion, and the uncertainty of dual diagnoses within one household. This holistic support ensures that neither the mother nor child faces this journey alone. This story reflects the lived reality of many families supported by CHOC—where poverty, illness, and distance intersect. Without transport assistance and integrated care, consistent treatment would not be possible. With support, this family is able to maintain dignity, access care, and hold onto connection during an extraordinarily difficult chapter of their lives.

CONCLUSION
Transport financial assistance remains one of the most impactful interventions within CHOC's Comprehensive Child and Family Support Programme. During the reporting period, 2,724 transport grants valued at R330,539/$19,976 helped ensure that children and teenagers with cancer and life-threatening blood disorders could continue accessing essential treatment and follow-up care.
By removing financial barriers to treatment access, the programme contributed to improved treatment adherence, reduced treatment abandonment, and strengthened survival prospects for children across South Africa.

Prepared by:
Nirupa Kasserchun
National Fundraiser
CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa
086 111 3500 / 084 437 8915
nirupak@choc.org.za

• CHOC_GLOBAL_GIVING_REPORT__JUNE_26.pdf (PDF)