The implementation of the Radiation Oncology Unit at the Molina Orosa Hospital has relied heavily on the struggle of patients and families of the Lanzarote Oncohematological Families Association (AFOL). Its president, Carmen Arrocha, gave an interview to Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero last Tuesday to review the difficult road they have had to travel.
Arrocha explained that she was happy about the launch of the unit, but the visit of the different authorities to the treatment unit was experienced with a "bit of bewilderment". "We were not notified that the inauguration was going to take place," Arrocha stressed in the interview. However, she celebrates that after so much struggle, it has been possible to have the Oncology Unit, although they would have liked to feel that presentation closely and together with the patients. "Our intention was to go with a group of patients so that they could see the reality of the struggle and what has been achieved," she said. "We are invited on Wednesday, December 13 to see the bunker center," she said.
During her speech on Radio Lanzarote's microphones, she recalled the nine years of struggle they have spent together with family members and patients. "With all their strength and support, always giving their testimony" and showing "how hard it was to move to Gran Canaria and Tenerife", the islands where they received treatment.
She did not want to forget that it was the demonstration on February 7, 2017, in which "more than 5,000 people took to the streets", the moment in which "the viability of that service began to be taken into account", she recalled. A very necessary service for cancer patients in Lanzarote.
In addition, she stressed the importance of having walked the road together hand in hand and having achieved this great advance. "We must give these resources and also unite to achieve them all." She showed words of gratitude to the patients who failed to overcome the disease. "Thanks to those who are not with us, but were at the flag of the demonstrations." Despite the sad outcome, "they did not want others to go through the same situation", she said with admiration.
She acknowledges that suffering is unknown until "it is experienced." "They did not put themselves in the place of the people who had to come and go," the president stressed.
There will be several measures that will be carried out in the new unit. The usual doctors who have treated the patients previously will be transferred. "The doctors from the Las Palmas hospital will continue to supervise the treatments," she said. "Each doctor from a different specialty will visit the patients," she said. "Let's hope they don't get tired of coming to treat," she says.
"Each doctor from a different specialty will visit the patients"
The next cause for which they continue to fight from the association is to get the PET diagnostic technique, a Positron Emission Tomography, to the island. A full body X-ray treatment, which identifies if the cancer has spread to other organs. "We have to fight for it and make sure that each island has its own, it is a necessity," she concludes.
