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SAMOA CANCER SOCIETY; The Samoa State of Emergency (SOE) due to COVID19 did not hinder the efforts of the community Stomal Therapy nurses working with the Counties Manukau District Health (CMDH) Board and Middlemore Hospital in Auckland to come to the rescue for gastric cancer patients who have had an ostomy operation in Samoa with the supply of hundreds of colostomy bags that arrived on the Air NZ medical and equipment flight last month.

Colostomy bags* has become as important a necessity as toothbrush and toothpaste for a patient living with stomach or gastric cancer at any stage after an operation.

The Samoa Cancer Society (SCS) have been able to keep its registered patients supplied with colostomy bags at no cost to the patient thanks to our ongoing friendly partnership with the community nurses at the Stomal Therapy unit in Auckland.

Since COVID-19 restrictions and with borders closed to international flights for our normal supply to come from Australia through a charity organization called The Australia Fund, SCS was unable to sustain its regular supply of free bags to its patients.  

The Society in the meantime had referred patients to the Ministry of Health who were selling the bags at $3.50 per bag or $70 for a box of 20. However the patient and caregiver found that navigating the pathway to get their supplies through the hospital system was lengthy and frustrating with costs of the bags unaffordable for some if not most of them especially during these COVID19 times.

One patient acknowledged the support of the SCS for his bag supplies which is normally sent over directly from family but he has had to enquire locally when flights to Samoa were suspended.

The announcement from government in April that the SOE would be extended, moved the SCS Board and Team to top up its supplies at the office from MOH with the purchase of colostomy bags from MOH to help alleviate the financial burden of its patients, by distributing these purchased bags for free to them.  Being an NGO, we are reliant ourselves on donations and donor funding for sustainability and realized that the current option of purchasing bags from MOH was not going to be a sustainable solution.

Upon learning of the special Air New Zealand A321 flight for emergency medical supplies and equipment from Auckland, SCS CEO Shelley Burich quickly reached out to the society’s friends with CMDH for assistance.  Within two days, the community nurses at Stomal Therapy unit in Middlemore Hospital had put together a total of 18 boxes of colostomy bags, urology bags and catheters as a donation to the Samoa Cancer Society.

SCS CEO Shelley Burich says, “I am extremely grateful to these community nurses at Middlemore Hospital for coming to the rescue during and despite these turbulent times to assist the non-clinical palliative care work of the Samoa Cancer Society in providing much needed colostomy bags for our gastric and stomach cancer patients. The value of these bags to a patient with stomach/gastric cancer may not be so noticeable to the public eye, but it is such an enhancement to the patients’ quality of health care in an already tumultuous time in their life as a cancer patient. It was a priority therefore for the SCS Team to ensure this service was readily available and consistent.

I also wish to acknowledge the efficient services of Pacific Forum Line (PFL) who assisted with the freight logistics and cartage from Faleolo Airport to Matautu, including Customs clearance and release documents.  The cost of airfreighting the 174kgs has graciously been covered by the New Zealand High Commission to Samoa, and through this generosity, our registered stomy patients will benefit from the continuation of donated bags, as well as saving funds for the Society.

SCS continues to enforce COVID-19 SOE measures during daily office operations especially in delivering supplies to cancer patients during home visits with the Patient Support Officer (PSO) maintaining social distancing and leaving supplies at the door. The same practice is done when they arrive at the office. 

* A colostomy bag is a plastic bag that collects fecal matter from the digestive tract through an opening in the abdominal wall called a stoma. Doctors attach a bag to the stoma following a colostomy operation. During a colostomy, a surgeon will bring out a portion of a person’s large intestine through the stoma. The colostomy bag can then collect stool as it passes through the gut. A person often needs a colostomy due to injury, disease, or another issue with the lower bowels. In some cases, the colostomy is temporary. In other situations, such as the removal of the colon due to bowel, colon or gastric cancer, colostomy may be permanent.

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For Further Media Information Contact:

Shelley Burich, SCS Chief Executive Officer

Email:  ceo@samoacancer.ws

Ph:  29813

Verona Parker, SCS Fundraising & Marketing Manager

Email: FMM@samoacancer.ws

Ph:  23984

At NZ Airport, 18 boxes packed and ready bound for Samoa.

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