Family Bank donates Sh1 million cancer equipment to Makueni County

By Sara Okuoro 

Family Bank has donated chemotherapy chairs and bio-safety cabinets valued at Sh1 million to the County Government of Makueni for its cancer treatment and management centre at the Makueni County Referral Hospital.

The Department of Health Services in Makueni reporting a high prevalence of cervical, prostate and breast cancers within the county.

“This is one of the major initiatives we are doing as a county. As a country, we do not have many public facilities that are able to address this disease. We are thankful to Family Bank and the First Ladies Association for supporting Makueni County. This is a noble cause that Family Bank is donating towards and we believe that the people of Makueni County will find this beneficial,” said Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana.

Family Bank Chief Executive Rebecca Mbithi said that the donations will go a long way towards promoting access to affordable and improved quality management of cancer patients.

“The cancer treatment is a heavy load to families when a loved one gets cancer.  A 78 per cent mortality rate means that cancer cannot be a government problem, it requires both private and public sector to come together to provide long-lasting solutions such as high cost of equipment,” said Mbithi.

“Apart from supporting the fight against cancer in Makueni, as a Bank we have also been supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises during this pandemic across the 41 counties that we operate in. To date, we have restructured almost Sh15 billion loans and we continue to support the SME market to cushion businesses against the impact of COVID-19,” she added.

According to the Ministry of Health, in 2019, the annual incidences of cancer in the country were about 28,000 new cases with an annual mortality rate of 78.5 per cent.