As a new team member of The Max Foundation, I feel honored to work with an organization that advocates for patients dealing with blood cancer. This global health organization has helped thousands of patients get access to treatment, provide education and awareness, and bring a community together throughout the world.
The Colors of Hope Art Collection is a vivid example of community work that empowers patients and caregivers to speak up about their journeys while dealing with cancer through art. The current gallery display at the University of Washington not only provides a glimpse of beautiful art from around the globe, but also each picture echoes the strength, resilience and hope each patient has.
These 24 pieces of artwork remind us that as a community we need to keep fighting for equal access to cancer treatment and keep bringing the subject to our policymakers. There are still thousands of people around the world without any access to medication and treatment. High costs of treatment, lack of support and lack of information are some of the reasons of why patients don’t get treatment. These pieces of artwork encourage us to look at our community and advocate for those who are dealing with cancer to help them find strength, courage, and hope.
The artwork will be on display until August 21st, 2014 and I invite you to stop by and feel the strength our community brings together.
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.
When Ka came to Thailand for access to treatment, she had the chance to join the MaxSmiles patient group meetings. Ka started to dream about having her own meetings and soon found support from Dr. Mary Cluck, an Australian volunteer working with Cambodian CML patients. Ka stepped up and called the patients one-by-one to invite them to their first patient meeting.
In Latin America, the Maximize Life Campaign has become something like a tradition – a time when each patient organization creates an event or activity of their choice and powers it up for a campaign that takes on a life of its own!
13 patient groups from 11 Latin American countries joined this year’s movement, bringing together patients and caregivers with the purpose of telling the community that cancer is an issue, that ignoring it is not going to make it go away, and that the best approach is to learn about it in order to know what to do about it. From governments to the general public, everybody can get involved in figuring out how to treat cancer patients as members of society and not as a burden.
Join us this summer in Malaysia! In July 2017, a team of partners, cancer survivors, and friends like you will join us from the USA, Malaysia, and beyond to embark on an adventure with a common goal: raising funds to carry out our work supporting cancer patients in Malaysia.
