October 19th is Max’s Day
October 19th is Max’s Day. We honor the day because it marks Max’s birthday. At the very same time, we honor all the people who have been helped in his name.
A Partnership Bound by Mission, Innovation, and History
At The Max Foundation, we believe in the power of individuals to make a difference, especially when it comes to health equity. Over the years, we’ve been privileged to work alongside some amazing people in both the public and private sectors – people who have moved mountains to help patients around the world face cancer with dignity and hope. We also believe in working closely with organizations whose mission and values align with our own.
At first glance, Global Fiberglass Solutions might seem an unlikely partner for The Max Foundation. However, when you look at our shared values – innovation, sustainable solutions, and global citizenship – it makes perfect sense. In fact, our partnership extends beyond just our values.
Global Fiberglass Solutions and The Max Foundation actually shared common leadership at our inceptions. The late Ken Weyant, one of our founding board members, was a visionary who understood the need to close the cancer divide between higher-income and lower-income countries. At the same time, he began a quest to recycle landfill-bound wind turbines into new products for the greater good. Since our respective beginnings, both our organizations have found different answers to the same fundamental question: “How do you take a difficult situation and use it to better the world?”
Our worlds came together again in 2017, thanks to the generous support of Global Fiberglass Solutions co-founder Don Lilly. Don has said, “There are such compelling synergies between our workstreams, in that both organizations are driven to find solutions that will increase health and well-being in our global community. And, with much regret, we lost Ken to cancer a couple of years back, which only underscores our commitment to the cause.”
Both The Max Foundation and Global Fiberglass Solutions see the tremendous value in public-private partnerships and believe social enterprise is the best way to build a better world. As a public nonprofit organization, The Max Foundation’s success depends upon donations from companies like Global Fiberglass Solutions – this strong community support makes our mission possible. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Don and his team and welcome the chance to forge new partnerships with like-minded individuals and organizations along the way.
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.
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Light a Candle on March 9th to Honor Max
March 9th marks a somber anniversary; the day Max lost his 3 year battle with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). For those of us who love Max, who either knew him then or who know and love him now, this will always be a day of sorrow. The words that come to mind are words such as ugly, unfair, impossible, and the feeling is one of emptiness; a whole in one’s heart. Max was a real person, a beautiful young child, whose encounter with cancer was nothing but a tragic episode.
Updates from Across the Globe
We’ve already seen lots of activity around the world this spring: The first gastrointestinal stromal tumor patient meeting in Hyderabad, India; storytelling workshops where people facing cancer learn to share their experience with dignity and hope; and the Malaysia patient team takes their gathering public with a great picnic! See what else has been happening at The Max Foundation during the first part of 2016.