The “Run with Sai: 400,000 steps to save children with cancer”, a charity run initiated by Cambodian singer and performer Uon Pakthom, better known as Sai, officially kicked off on October 22. This event will see Sai run from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap – a distance of 303km – over nine days.
The main purpose of the campaign is to raise funds for cancer treatment at the Angkor Hospital for Children, which has recorded an increase of cases in recent years.
The hospital has treated 508 children with cancer since 2012 and currently spends between $350,000 and $450,000 a year taking care of these patients.
Sin Ket Arun, director of the hospital’s public relations office, said there are many different types of cancer being treated at the hospital, including eye cancer, spinal cord cancer, brain cancer and leukemia.
Although the hospital has an excellent medical staff specialising in treating these kinds of illnesses, Ket Arun pointed out that cancer treatment is often among the most expensive of all form of medical care. Dealing with these kinds of diseases often means the need for many different procedures, from surgery, chemotherapy, laser resurfacing and tissue freezing injection to pain management.
This is not the first time that Sai has organized a run to raise money for the hospital. In 2020, he organised a 97-day run around Cambodia and raised $ 500,000, just when the facility was facing a shortfall in funding.
All donations will be sent directly to the Angkor Hospital for Children’s Hospital bank account. Sai appealed to national and international philanthropists to donate as much as they can, saying that Cambodian children deserve all of the help, and hope, that we can share.
