Janaki is a happy 22-year-old woman living in Nepal and working at Century Bank. But this has not always been the case for her.
At the ripe age of ten years old, Janaki’s physical health began to deteriorate, and her family was left searching for answers. With the financial burden being too much for her parents to bear, they placed Janaki on her first plane ride at age 11 to meet up with her brother in Nepalgunj.
They continued to consult pediatricians around the country to no avail, until they finally heard the devastating words – Janaki’s blood test showed symptoms of cancer, but further testing needed to be done. Eventually, a doctor in Kathmandu prescribed a month’s supply of treatment necessary and Janaki was on her way home.
Reintegrating back into her home village in Bajura was a challenge in and of itself, that only got harder once her medication required administration every 15 days in Bharatpur. While Janaki relocated to Kathmandu for closer proximity to treatment, she often still had to endure these visits alone, which was eventually too much.
One day, Janaki’s father received a call from our colleague at The Max Foundation in Nepal, and their family’s glimmer of hope was restored. We were able to transfer her case fully to Kathmandu and eliminate the geographic and socioeconomic barriers that stood between her and healing.
After nine grueling years, Janaki now feels she has overcome the diagnosis that both her and her family imagined would consume her. Now, she lives a normal life and serves as an inspiration for others in her shoes.
The Max Foundation has been around the world and back the past 25 years, developing necessary systems to deliver lifesaving treatment safely and effectively to patients in underserved countries. With unwavering dedication from our team members and support from an entire ecosystem of partners and organizations that share in our cause, we proved the impossible possible. And as a result, countless lives have been saved that would otherwise be lost.
As we look ahead to these next five years, we’re laser-focused on changing perceptions so that it will no longer be acceptable to leave patients behind. We firmly believe geography must not dictate one’s destiny and that there is so much more that can be done to help our friends around the globe face critical illness with dignity and hope.
Over the next five years, four broad goals will help us accelerate health equity:
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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Nothing is more powerful than storytelling, especially when it’s told from a person’s first-hand experience.
In the Asia Pacific region, we are often known as “shy” community. We do not often share our stories publicly, especially a story about cancer diagnosis. We often have no one to turn to because we do not want our parents to worry; we do not want our children to feel the burden; we do not want to tell our neighbors who might be starting to avoid us because we are diagnosed with cancer.
