The Bricks4Kids campaign aims to help build a better place for children with cancer. Datamail proud to have contributed to this campaign by purchasing a brick.

Datamail has purchased bricks as part of a fundraising drive for the new cancer ward at Starship hospital in Auckland. This initiative will assist in creating a new ward which will better serve the needs of effected children and their families.

Starship was New Zealand’s first hospital built specifically for children. The cancer ward at Starship treats two-thirds of New Zealand’s child and adolescent cancer patients.

The unit at Starship currently consists of 14 beds in 11 rooms. This means that children are disadvantaged in a number of ways. In shared facilities children can be scared by what's happening to others in the room. Patients without immunity after gruelling chemotherapy treatment require a single room for the duration of their stay to avoid the possibility of infection. As the cancer ward doesn’t have enough single rooms, children and teenagers are transferred to general wards where they are no longer under the fulltime care of oncology staff. The move can also prove disruptive and unsettling during an already trying and difficult time in their lives.

Around the world, hospitals are moving to a new era of cancer treatment which concentrates on providing a comprehensive treatment that addresses not only the medical needs, but the social, psychiatric and emotional needs of the patients. New Zealand is falling behind in providing the best possible care for these children.

Childhood cancer impacts the whole of a person's life. With the right care it is possible to lessen the negative impact so that the child is not just cured of cancer but recovers in every way.