My name is Chhoun Socheata, I am 31 years old and I am an online teacher, teaching English and Khmer (Cambodian language). I have two children, a 10-year-old daughter, and a 6-year-old son. My goal in the future is to own a school, which teaches English/Khmer that I can train Cambodian children as well as earning an income for my family.
I started to notice that I was tired and had regular headaches, vomiting, and frequent. Then I began to do several blood tests/lumbar punctures. On May 2021, I found out that I did have CML. This result made my world turned upside down and I cried and cried, was very depressed by the news. There were also many questions came to my mind, who’s going to take care of my family? How am I going to have the money for this ongoing treatment? My condition got worse, I lost a lot of weight from 58 kg to only 35 kg, could not eat and became very exhausted every day.
At first, I was treated at Sihanoukville Public Hospital and many private hospitals, but I was still very ill, no sign of getting any better. Then, I was sent back to Siem Reap province for treatment, and the private Siem Reap hospital told me about my condition and that I had to go to Calmette Hospital right away, which located in Phnom Penh. Once I got to Calmette Hospital, I was treated there for nine days, by intravenous (IV) and blood transfusion. Between the Calmette hospital and other private hospitals I have spent over $10 000. Due to my lack of funds, Calmette doctors remembered that there was another hospital, which was Mercy Medical Center Cambodia (MMCC) that provide free medicine for me as a cancer patient. Then I went to MMCC in Phnom Penh for further treatment, receiving the right treatment from the doctor and free oral medication (Glivec) there through the MAS Program.
This treatment is very important for me because it gives me a lot of hope, can live like a normal person and can monitor the progress of my disease. I am so happy to continue living with my family. Thank you to The Max Foundation for providing me the free medication. I am grateful beyond words can express.
I would like to tell all CML patients, do not be discouraged and live happy and with hope, because we have a good medication that can help save our lives.
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.
Every year our South Asia team organizes 15–20 meetings that unite hundreds of the patients we serve, their families, caregivers, and physicians. These meetings provide a safe and comfortable platform for everyone to share their insights and learn from each other’s experiences with cancer.
In 2011, Carmen developed a fever that lasted for weeks and began losing weight rapidly. After multiple doctors, tests, and misdiagnoses, she finally discovered she had chronic myeloid leukemia. Carmen feared her life was over. She even went so far as to sew her own funeral dress.
Eventually, Carmen learned that her cancer could be managed through oral treatment, but the costs were prohibitive. Luckily her physician was a Max Foundation partner. She was able to enroll in our access program for imatinib at no cost, and all seemed well for a few years—until, that is, she stopped responding to her initial treatment.
Dr. Jayasree Iyer, Executive Director of the Access to Medicine Foundation (ATMF), sits down with The Max Foundation and answers seven questions about the Access to Medicine Index, emerging trends in treatment access, and the role of collaborative access initiatives in treating chronic diseases.
