As part of our 20th Anniversary Celebration on October 19th, The Max Foundation was honored to have Princess Dina, President-elect of the Union of International Cancer Control, reflect on our global efforts over the last two decades. We share her letter here with gratitude and humility.
“Lack of access to treatment” is a five-word sentence that is bandied about a lot in the global advocacy world. The academic-style labeling of the term at times numbs us from the real horror on the ground from what “lack of access to treatment” actually looks like.
Not The Max Foundation. The Max Foundation understood that when a child, for example, has chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and does not have access to medication, it literally means that this child will die in excruciating pain and right in front of their helpless parents, whose only fault is that they live in the wrong hemisphere. As the mother of a cancer survivor, I cannot begin to imagine how horrific this would be.
If there is one organization whose sole mission is to deliver rather than talk about access to treatment, it would be The Max Foundation. With more than four million monthly doses of lifesaving treatment, love and support given to over 80,000 patients for 20 years, through great local and regional partnerships, The Max Foundation has translated “access to treatment” to what it really means: “access to life”.
With the overwhelming knowledge that 70% of global cancer deaths are in low- and middle-income countries, who are least prepared to deal with cancer, The Max Foundation did not shy away from this statistic, but rather it steeled their resolve. The Max Foundation started working, reaching out and never wavered. Day in, day out for 20 years, The Max Foundation has heeded the call of help from so many patients.
As pioneers in the management of global access programs, as well as other access channels and diverse partnerships, The Max Foundation has delivered on its mission and has honored the legacy of Maximiliano (Max) Rivarola in the most noble of ways: his memory is forever linked with the lives of thousands of human beings from all over the world who have been given a second chance at life.
Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired,
President-elect of the Union of International Cancer Control
Former CEO of King Hussein Cancer Foundation in Amman, Jordan
The Max Foundation is a leading global health nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating health equity. For 27 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, 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.
Surviving cancer in countries that lack the support and care, the word empowerment is not in patients’ dictionaries. But if we could increase the access to treatment and care in these countries, can we turn the tables?
Cancerworld recently published an article by Ann Wagstaff titled Begging for imatinib: why do so many patients still lack access to this lifesaver? It highlights the challenges people living with CML face in accessing imatinib, a life-extending medicine that has been generic for many years. Here is our perspective on the story. We have known….
