Friends around the world, have you heard what 2017 is? It is The Max Foundation’s 20th Anniversary as an organization! That’s 7,300 days; 175,200 hours; 10,512,000 minutes. We are amazed, proud and grateful as we mark this milestone together with our global community.
Our anniversary is not just marking the one day we formed our mission. It is about each day that we work with you, our partners, towards social change so that no one experiences stigma when diagnosed with cancer and we all experience health equity. We cannot rest until people everywhere are able to access the cancer treatment, care and support they need – no matter where they live.
When we named our values recently as an organization, we arrived at Excellence, Dedication, Innovation and Collaboration. As a team, we aim to live these values every day.
Through the years, we have developed a personality as an organization. We are passionate, committed, determined, resourceful, creative, and always striving to improve ourselves. We are a global organization with a global perspective because we are serving the world.
The Max Foundation would not be here without all of you: our supporters, donors, sponsors, partners, team members, advocates and, most importantly our patient friends who inspire our mission.
In 2017, we plan to honor our anniversary with you in many different ways; a climb to the top of a mountain in Malaysia, blue ribbons sent to friends around the world, and a celebration in Seattle on Max’s Day, October 19th.
We sincerely thank you for getting us to 20. Now, let’s keep changing the world so all people face cancer with dignity and hope!
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.
Tony Leo from from Malaysia and living in Singapore inspired The Max Foundation to host our 2017 Max Global Experience in Malaysia to climb Mt. Kinabalu. Tony’s story explains how this climb closes a 10-year-journey of discovering and living beyond his cancer diagnosis. 10 years ago, for my first attempt to climb Mount Kinabalu, I felt….
We’re often reminded of why we put an effort in supporting people facing cancer – whether it comes through a patient story or through an organization’s investment in our work. This week, we humbly received another reminder: on Friday, May 22, the International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) Foundation awarded our CEO Pat Garcia-Gonzalez with the inaugural ERSAP (Emerging Region Support and Partnership) Prize. The iCMLf Directors and Scientific Advisors selected Pat because of her continued commitment, and The Max Foundation’s aim, to help people face cancer with dignity and hope.
Over the past several months, we have been training, fundraising, and preparing to conquer Mt. Kinabalu, and now we’re counting down the days until our team meets at the foot of the mountain for the big climb. Why climb a mountain, you might ask?
