Every year, throughout the month of October, we honor Max and his legacy by partnering with our network of cancer organizations to carry out the Maximize Life Global Cancer Awareness Campaign. It is a month of service that aims at decreasing stigma and increasing hope for people living with cancer around the world.
It is Max’s story that originally inspired the birth of the organization. It is all of the cancer survivors, advocates, and patient leaders around the world that continue to inspire us today. In this way, our past and our future are interconnected.
As a very special tribute, we bring two friends and colleagues together to talk about Max the person. Pat, our CEO and Max’s step-mom was interviewed by advocate, cancer survivor and team member, Fan. Their bond, their friendship, their mutual respect and their shared mission are all revealed through an intimate conversation.
Listen to Pat reflect on Max’s story and legacy.
To bring light to this powerful shared story, we availed an exciting new storytelling platform created by the non-profit organization called StoryCorps. By using StoryCorp technology, this meaningful journey is documented for posterity, as well as for sharing easily with all of you. We are looking forward to using StoryCorps for future storytelling opportunities.
We invite your thoughts and comments below in recognition of October 19th. In honor of Max and in partnership with all of you, we thank you for listening.
The Max Foundation is a leading global health nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating health equity. For 28 years, Max has pioneered practical, scalable, high-quality solutions to bring life-extending treatments and patient-centered health care to more than 100,000 people living with cancer and critical illness in low- and middle-income countries. Max believes in a world where all people can access high-impact medicines, where geography is not destiny, and where everyone can strive for health with dignity and with hope.
Tony Leo, musician and patient advocate shares his story of finding great passion and inspiration in the midst of facing his fears. “Passion is something that grips you, changes you and make you scale great heights where few will ever reach.”
In Guatemala, there are 14,200 new cases of cancer a year and from this amount 9,100 people die of cancer or 64.7%. Most of these diagnoses could have been prevented or better treated if diagnosed early. In Guatemala only the persons who have access to the national social security plan have free services and treatment, but poor quality and lack of medications or in most occasions. People who do not have social security have to pay for health services and for medications. As per statistics taken from Globocan 2008, the most common cancers in Guatemala are prostate, cervix, stomach, breast and lung cancers.
In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the female clinicians worldwide who join us to bridge access to treatment for their patients.
