It's not enough to have thousands of people suffering from cancer. Now they find themselves forced to do without tried and trusted help until further notice, Reem Leila reports For years, patients desperately in need of treatment have been journeying across the country to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Now they are being forced to seek help elsewhere. The NCI's southern wing is falling down. Despite an increase in its facilities and attempts to improve the building's infrastructure, the NCI, which hosts more than 100,000 patients a year, has been literally abandoned. It has not enjoyed the financial success as that of the Children's Cancer Hospital, popularly known as 57357. Last year, President Hosni Mubarak donated the $100,000 he received after being awarded the Jawaher Lal Nihrohe prize to the NCI in a bid to encourage businessmen to pay more attention -- and money -- to the institute. Still, not much in the two categories was given to the NCI, a decrepit structure affiliated to Cairo University Now parts of the ceiling are falling down -- every day. The building's 650 patients are being evacuated. What is needed is an overall restoration. "Partial restoration is of no use," says Hani El-Hashemi, Cairo University advisor for engineering affairs and head of the Engineering Committee responsible for the institute's renewal. El-Hashemi said the building, which overseas the River Nile and from where you can see Fomm Al-Khalig on one side and Qasr Al-Aini Street on the other, had incurred several construction faults not attended to and which mounted during the past five years. There have been at least three attempts to restore the building "but it seems they were not much of a success," El-Hashemi said. The NCI was built only 15 years ago. "It requires LE30 million to rebuild. The entire amount is currently unavailable. Accordingly, it was essential to evacuate it until a suitable decision is reached," El-Hashemi said. Hussein Khaled, vice-president of Cairo University, said the government had procured a few million pounds to start restoring the NCI. The NCI's patients will be sent to various Cairo hospitals, among them the newly built Al-Qahera Al-Gadida in New Cairo which has 200 beds. Al-Sheikh Zayed Hospital has a similar number of beds, in addition to 70 more beds at the Student's Hospital in Giza. The hospital has two operation theatres for emergencies, in addition to an extra operation room at the Nasser National Institute. "The NCI will continue receiving patients, especially children, at its outpatient clinics. Chemotherapy will resume at the NCI's southern building," Khaled said. Parents are trying to cope. An abandoned wife, Zeinab Mohamed, comes from an impoverished village deep in the Nile Delta. She lost two children to cancer and is struggling to save her daughter from the same fate. "Ali was a lovely boy," Mohamed told Al-Ahram Weekly, pulling the photo of an adorable four- year-old from her tattered wallet. At the time she did not understand much about the illness that claimed the lives of her two older children. She says she understands a little more about it now and that had she been more knowledgeable perhaps she could have saved their lives. "It is God's will," she says in resignation. Her faith in a better hereafter gives her strength to carry on. But Mohamed also has to deal with deep-seated anxiety after being told by doctors she has to take her son out of the hospital because of its precarious state. "I don't know where to go to continue my son's medication. Doctors told me to take him to Al-Qahera Al-Gadida Hospital, but I'm afraid of paying extra. I cannot afford the drugs and therapy they give my child," Mohamed said. "I had to take my son Amir out of a foreign language private school to pay for Mai's treatment," said Nabil Nagui, whose daughter suffers from retinoblastoma, or eye cancer, the most common form of the illness among children. "Quite an advanced stage of the disease, her doctor told me." Nagui was having difficulty coming to terms with the situation. He was on his third cup of coffee after a harrowing evening at an expensive private clinic. He was asked to cough up LE5,000 the next day to have his daughter's left eye removed. Mai had a ready and infectious smile, which Nagui failed to respond to, especially after being told he had to take his daughter to another hospital. "Doctors gave me the choice of either sending my daughter to another hospital or continuing the medication at home," Nagui said. Uncertain about the awkward situation he and his daughter are in, Nagui said while cupping his head with his hands, "I am a man of modest means. I cannot afford this kind of treatment at home. I want the very best for my daughter but I love my other children as well. They, too, deserve a better future. "I don't know whether I'm going to pay extra if I take her somewhere else. My only choices are Al-Qahera Al-Gadida and Al-Sheikh Zayed hospitals because they are the only ones equipped for my daughter's case. But both are very far from where I live in Shubra. I really don't know what to do. I don't know where my daughter will get her next chemotherapy session," Nagui added. In an attempt to allay fears of patients and their families, Salah Abdel-Hadi, head of NCI, said patients who will be taken to other hospitals will not pay any extra fees or charges. "They will receive the same service, if not better, for free, and patients will resume their therapy courses, whether radiotherapy or chemotherapy," Abdel-Hadi said. For the time being, the NCI, according to Abdel-Hadi, will not receive any in-clinic patients "because we have been requested to move our 650 patients out as soon as possible." Doctors and nurses working for the NCI are confused. "Parts of the ceiling are constantly falling down. We were instructed to move our offices, desks and patients to the other building, but there is not enough room for all of them. The NCI administration wants us to finish this by Saturday, which is impossible for me," argued one of the nurses on condition of anonymity. Prosecutor-General Mahmoud Abdel-Maguid has referred the NCI issue to investigation under the claim of corruption. The building is suffering serious damage in its infrastructure. "Samples taken from the NCI's foundations reveal that the cement, sand and iron bars used in building the institute are not up to the required standards," El-Hashemi said. He denied rumours that the building will be torn down; the NCI will only accept a proper restoration process. "But to fulfil the mission, the building must be evacuated."
