Erica Msangi, People Partner and HR Operations Lead at A.P. Moller – Maersk, shared on LinkedIn:
“Fifteen years ago, childhood cancer survival in Tanzania sat below 10%. Today it’s approaching 50% – and the team isn’t stopping there.
The goal: push past 70%. Last week i had an opportunity to visit Muhimbili Children’s Hospital.
One of the most holistic pediatric oncology programs I’ve ever come across, quietly scaling across Tanzania under the leadership of Trish Scanlan.
It’s not just about medicine – it’s a full ecosystem:
- 9 treatment hospitals, with three regional centers now able to diagnose leukemia rapidly and accurately on-site
- 17 locally trained pediatric oncologists, educated through a master’s fellowship that keeps talent in East Africa rather than losing clinicians to overseas training
- A hostel for families offering schooling, play, yoga, music therapy, and nutrition education – because treatment doesn’t happen in a vacuum
- A nutrition program that ditched packaged supplements for fresh, locally available whole foods-now adopted at partner sites across the region
- Caregivers learning practical skills like sewing to rebuild livelihoods, and survivor parents leading weekly peer support to give newly diagnosed families something no doctor can: HOPE
- An electronic medical record system live across all nine hospitals
The hard truth: about 30% of children still arrive too late for curative treatment. Brain tumors go underdiagnosed due to limited CT and MRI access. Diagnostic samples need a reliable delivery partner. Pharmaceutical partnerships remain critical to secure newer, expensive therapies.
That’s where the opportunity lies – and why Maersk is exploring a partnership with Dr. Scanlan and her team.
And let me be clear:
Maersk’s support isn’t limited to logistics. It could be operational – streamlining processes so the clinical teams can focus on patients. It could be financial – providing grants or underwriting infrastructure that stretches every donor dollar further. It could be technical – digitising records, improving supply chain visibility, or setting up cold-chain monitoring. Whatever form it takes, the goal is simple: ease the institution’s burden so they can push survival rates even higher.
Here’s my challenge to other organisations reading this:
If you’re in pharma – these children need access to newer cancer drugs. A donation or access program could change survival curves overnight.
If you’re in diagnostics or medical imaging – CT and MRI access in regional Tanzania is a bottleneck that costs lives. Your equipment or expertise could close that gap. etc.
Dr. Scanlan and her team have already taken childhood cancer survival from single digits to 50% with limited resources. Imagine what that number becomes when more partners show up – not with cheques and photo ops, but with capabilities and commitment. Sometimes the most powerful support isn’t a container moving across an ocean. Let’s make those connections happen.”
Other articles about Childhood Cancer Survival on OncoDaily.