Recently, Megan Webber and Helene Dameris of KnowTheGlow (KTG) met with key leaders from Childhood Cancer International (CCI), after an introduction by Dr. Marcela Zubieta. The meeting brought together Rodney Wong from Malaysia, President of CCI, and Carl Queiros from South Africa, Executive Director of CCI, to explore potential collaborations between the two organizations.
Rodney Wong is not only the President of CCI but also Co-Founder of Childhood Cancer Malaysia and Immediate Past President of the Sarawak Children’s Cancer Society. His passion for supporting families impacted by childhood cancer comes from a personal experience—his son is a leukemia survivor, having battled the disease at just six years old. This personal connection has fueled Rodney’s 23-year commitment to CCI, where he leads with a mission to raise childhood cancer survival rates from 40% to 60% globally. In addition to being CEO of Universal Robina Munchy’s, a major snack company in Malaysia and volunteering in multiple organizations, Rodney dedicates a significant amount of his volunteer time to CCI, believing that the organization’s success hinges on creating a sustainable structure with full-time employees rather than relying solely on volunteers.
Carl Queiros, CCI’s Executive Director, has been with the organization for two years. Previously, he was CEO of the Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC) in Johannesburg and chaired CCI’s African Regional Committee. With a background in psychology, law, and economics, Carl brings a diverse perspective, focusing on family and patient support. He highlighted CCI’s unique strength: being parent- and family-driven. Carl was particularly impressed by KTG’s global reach, especially its efforts in Africa and Asia, where limited resources demand innovative solutions.
At a recent global conference, Carl shared an eye-opening experience about the critical role of traditional healers in Africa. In many communities, people seek treatment from healers first, despite their inability to effectively treat certain conditions like retinoblastoma (RB). Recognizing this, CHOC developed a strategy to collaborate with traditional healers rather than compete with them. This partnership allows healers to identify potential RB cases and send photos to CCI, which ensures children are referred to eye specialists. This approach has been pivotal in detecting RB early, a cancer that is relatively easy to identify but often goes undiagnosed in resource-limited areas. Carl and Rodney discussed how KTG could support similar efforts, using online campaigns to raise awareness and promote early intervention. With RB being the fourth most common cancer in children in Africa, early diagnosis is vital to reducing mortality and improving survival rates.
Rodney expressed optimism about the potential collaboration, envisioning KTG benefiting from CCI’s global network, sharing best practices, and joining working groups. They explored the idea of creating educational materials tailored to African audiences and addressing the critical challenge of guiding families to proper care pathways. Megan and Helene feel strongly that this is an exciting opportunity to enter a new phase of collaboration with CCI, where the introduction of KTG’s freely offered resources and materials through CCIs membership network can make a profound impact on finding, diagnosing, and treating children facing retinoblastoma worldwide. They look forward to getting to know more about CCI’s team and members and sharing about the impact CCI is having worldwide to support children and families facing all types of childhood cancer diagnoses.
