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In low-income countries, families have to make the decision between cancer care for one child and food for the rest of the family.

We want to make that decision obsolete.

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here. I'm Emily Smith (PhD, MSPH), an Assistant Professor at Duke University and the Duke Global Health Institute, and I'm also known as the 'Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist'. 

My work focuses on the intersection of poverty and children’s health. I, along with my partners at St. Jude Global and my team at Duke, are working hard to make cancer care for all children a reality. However, the recent funding cuts and freezes now put that work and my team at risk.

To date, 90% of all childhood cancer cases occur in low-income countries and most of those children (90%) will not survive. As a comparison, 90% of children with cancer in the US survive due to the availability of life-saving treatments, making childhood cancer one of the starkest global health disparities. 

One of the main reasons why this disparity still exists is poverty. 

Many families with a child with cancer in low-income countries have to make a decision between cancer care for one child and food for the rest of the family. These decisions result in poverty for the family due to high out-of-pocket costs like transportation to the hospital and many families can’t even pay that. This means the child doesn’t get to the life-saving treatment in time. Our work aims to make that obsolete through life-saving treatment and poverty alleviation efforts.

We imagine a world where all children with cancer and their families can thrive, eliminating the need for families to have to decide between paying for cancer care for their child or feeding the rest of their family.

Will you join us? Your support will make sure my team can continue supporting children with cancer in countries that need it the most. 

You can also send your donation via check or QCD:

Please make the check payable to Duke University, but include “Emily Smith - Global Children's Cancer Fund - 391001207” on the memo line or in an included note. You can mail the check to:

Duke Children's Development (Duke Children's Hospital)

300 W. Morgan Street, Suite 1000, Durham, NC 27701

If donating via QCD, Duke’s tax EIN is 56-0532129.

For any questions, you can email globalhealth.giving@duke.edu and emily.smith1@duke.edu, and the team can help get their donation to the right place.

Thanks!

Emily

https://emilysmith.substack.com/

https://scholars.duke.edu/person/Emily.Smith

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash