Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu is one philanthropist who puts money where her mouth is. This amiable Kebbi State First lady has passionately worked to significantly contribute and impact on the health of people everywhere, most importantly, cancer patients.
In August, Zainab was honoured as a fellow of the African Institute of Public Health Professionals for her outstanding contributions which have propelled significant innovation and progress in public health and cancer in Nigeria and beyond. Buoyed up by that recognition, Zainab through her Medicaid Cancer Foundation recently announced a N50 million Cancer Fund to be managed in partnership with Nigeria Cancer Society to support indigent cancer patients and scientific research to advance cancer care in Nigeria. There are 124,815 new cancer cases in Nigeria every year while 78,899 Nigerians will be lost to cancer in 2022, primarily from breast, prostate, and cervical cancers. This fund will help to increase access to clinical cancer care services following diagnosis in Nigeria and advance the quality of cancer care management through indigenous scientific research that will be led by Nigerian scientists.
The partnership will also benefit from technical partnerships with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the London Cancer Network.