World Cancer Day: When NGOs step In because the system steps back

By Blake Dyason

Today, 4 February, is World Cancer Day – a day meant to raise awareness, encourage early detection, and remind us that behind every statistic is a human being.

And yet, here in South Africa, on World Cancer Day, we are once again being reminded of a deeply uncomfortable truth: when the system fails, it is NGOs who step in to carry the load.

Recently, Pink Drive was contacted directly by radiologists at Tygerberg Hospital. The hospital is in the process of upgrading vital equipment. Great news in the long term but during this upgrade, the service providers will be out of commission for approximately six weeks. Six weeks without critical diagnostic equipment. Six weeks where patients risk delayed diagnosis and treatment.

For cancer patients, delays are not just inconvenient. They are life-altering.

Pink Drive responded immediately and deployed one of its mobile mammography units to ensure patients could still access early detection services. This is not new territory for them. Over the years, Pink Drive has supported many hospitals with these mobile trucks.

What is different this time is the silence from those who should be first in line to help.

Mobile units come with real, unavoidable costs — fuel, staff, maintenance, equipment, insurance. Ordinarily, these costs should be carried by hospitals, health departments, or government structures. In this case, Tygerberg Hospital simply does not have the budget. And to date, there has been no meaningful support from the Department of Health or the City of Cape Town.

So Noelene and her team at Pink Drive did what they always do: they stepped up anyway. At their own cost.

They did it to ensure women are not turned away.
They did it so early detection can still happen.
They did it because, quite simply, someone had to.

But goodwill does not pay the bills. Passion does not service equipment. And commitment alone cannot keep these trucks on the road indefinitely.

Pink Drive is now in urgent need of financial support to cover these costs, not only to keep the mobile unit operational at Tygerberg, but to hopefully keep it in Cape Town and extend its reach to rural communities where access to mammograms and cancer screening is even more limited.

NGOs should complement a functioning system — not replace it.

On World Cancer Day, we need to celebrate the incredible work being done by Pink Drive and the many Cancer and health care NPOs in South Africa.

I am deeply grateful for organisations like Pink Drive. If you are in a position to help, to fund, to amplify, or to apply pressure where it counts, today is the day.

You can listen to the recent radio interview highlighting this reality here: