About The BRICON Foundation

At The BRICON Foundation, we seek to support patients and their families battling with cancer through counselling, education and advocacy, and assistance with sourcing funds for treatment. 

Our Vision

To reduce the need for medical tourism, improve survivorship and patient quality of life for cancer patients in Nigeria.

Our Mission

Helping raise awareness about cancer via education, advocacy and counselling

Caring about the emotional well being of those with cancer and their loved ones

Supporting with fundraising for patient treatment and training of health care professionals

Our History

Our two founders, Abigail and Niyi lost a parent each to cancer and Abigail, is a breast cancer survivor herself; the cancer being detected during a routine mammogram whilst on vacation in the UK. Fortunately the cancer was caught early and after a double mastectomy she is now cancer free. On her return we looked into what was actually available within Nigeria for cancer patients and were alarmed by the lack of sufficient support structures (counselling and advice), equipment, financial assistance and trained medical personnel to cope with the ever-increasing numbers of cancer patients. 

Whilst screening and advocacy continues to bring cancer patients to the fore, the treatment centres and support structures cannot cope with these rising volumes. There is therefore a need to address the different areas of cancer care to ensure that patients’ who are found to have cancer, have where to go to receive care, and more importantly can afford to have this care at all. This led to the birth of The BRICON Foundation.

Our Aims and Objective (SAFE)

SUPPORT ​- We provide necessary support structure (counselling and other related care), donation of mastectomy wear and other cancer related aids where possible.
ACCESS TO CARE – ​Provide cancer patients with improved access to health care.
FUNDING – ​We assist in sourcing financial support for cancer patient treatment and diagnostic test.
EDUCATION/TRAINING & ADVOCACY – ​We provide training programs for healthcare professionals, NGO’s and caregivers. Also, we do advocacy for breast, cervical, and prostate cancer.

Our Beliefs And Values

* Our own experiences makes us better advocates for change.
* We cannot change the healthcare industry alone but we can contribute to the change.
* Each journey no matter how hard, starts with the first step.
* We must stop stigmatization, every man, woman and child has a right to quality medical care and a decent quality life even when sick.
* Change cannot happen if the people are not empowered to take responsibility for their own part in bringing about that change. 

Meet Our Founders

Our team consists of experience and professional counselors who provide supports and specialist care for people living with cancer.

Co Founder

Abigail Simon-Hart

Abigail is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where she qualified with a first class honours Bachelor’s degree in Zoology. She also successfully completed a Masters degree at the University of Jos in Applied Entomology and Parasitology. She has worked with multinational and international organizations including Air France, AXA Assistance and UNIC Insurance.

Abigail is a breast cancer survivor and has been very active in cancer awareness programmes and CRS related activities for clients and the general public for most of her working life. She spearheaded the refurbishment of the LUTH Oncology Department in November 2015, which was fully funded by APMT. She has written articles for magazines and participated in radio shows discussing breast cancer and living with cancer. She also runs counseling sessions for beast cancer patients and survivors.

Co Founder

Dr Niyi Adekeye

Niyi is a graduate of the college of Medicine, Idi-Araba, Lagos with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree. Apart from his dental degree, he holds a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious Lagos Business School (now Pan African University) and also has internationally recognised information technology (IT) certifications in database administration (DBA). He has worked with several large multinationals including Accelon Nigeria and MTN Nigeria.

He is also an active advocate for cancer awareness campaigns for clients and the general public. He was part of the project management team for the LUTH refurbishment in November 2015.