The Saudi Cancer Society (SCS) announced it helped treat 3,000 cancer patients and spent SR3 million over its budget for the process. The announcement was made in the society's bi-annual report released Saturday. Abdullah Al-Amr, head of the society's board pointed out that the patients who benefited from the SCS's social services during the first half of this year reached 3,099 patients with SR3,690,299 extra out of its budget spent on treatment. The money was not solely spent on treatment programs but also for airline tickets to bring 1,0791 patients to the treatment facilities they needed. According to the report SR3,051.47 was spent on providing direct assistance to people. “Some 561 male and female cancer patients who live outside Riyadh wanted to receive their medical assistance in Riyadh hospitals. These patients also benefited from residence privileges in the capital which cost the society some SR728,780,” Al-Amr added.The society also offers financial aid to its patients as well as making equipment available to them. “The society has also provided some 37 modern medical devices for patients in the area they live if the hospitals are unable to acquire them, costing the society some SR64,810,” he said. Al-Amr said he had mixed feelings about the help as there are so many more patients with the increased spread of the disease. “Despite our sadness to see this killing disease destroy the lives of our citizens, we are happy to have reached as many patients as we could to give them the services they needed,” he said. He said residence allocations for patients from outside their cities have been increased. “These allocations have jumped to 100 percent in one year, the rise was due to the increasing cost of housing,” he said. Al-Amr said that without the guidance of Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz and the society's honorary president Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah none of this could have been possible. __
