Child cancer in Numbers

Around 150 are children are diagnosed with cancer each year in Aotearoa
The most common cancers in Aotearoa (and globally) are acute leukaemia* and cancers of the brain and spinal cord**
2/3 children with cancer are diagnosed with cancer of their blood cells, lymphatic system or central nervous system.
Many childhood cancers are highly treatable.
The survival rate for children living in Aotearoa in New Zealand are comparable other high-income countries like Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA.
Treatment for childhood cancers have improved drastically in the past few decades.

*cancer of the white blood cells

**Sometimes referred to as the Central Nervous System

There are 11 in patient beds on ward A6.
Most days you will find between 5 and 10 in-patients staying at CHOC.
In an average week, there can be more than 50 people through the day ward (with some children attending more than once a week)
At any given time, there can be over 80 children on active treatment.
Dot the giraffe is celebrating 10 years on CHOC this year with each patient finishing treatment putting a dot with paint on the giraffe and signing their name. She has hundreds of dots but being 2.4m tall there’s still space for many more. She sits in our main corridor with the end of treatment bell and families and children spend a lot of time looking through the previous dots and names, waiting for their turn to put one on themselves.

Scotty the Skytower/Captain Starship

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