October is here! And with the changing of the seasons comes the official start of the 2016 Maximize Life Global Cancer Awareness Campaign! Energy and excitement are growing as over 40 Max Global Network partners across Latin America, Asia and Africa prepare to host multiple awareness events throughout the month in an effort to support and raise awareness about the needs of people living with cancer. 2016 marks the eighth year of the Campaign, which has proven year after year to provide a supportive and meaningful outlet for patients and caregivers to share their stories with their community, and most importantly, with others facing similar challenges.
Creating open dialogue around the cancer experience is critical to increasing hope for people impacted by cancer and awareness about the needs of people living with cancer in their community. The Maximize Life Campaign is about spreading this message and encouraging community conversations about cancer. I speak for my colleagues when I say that all of us at The Max Foundation are honored and humbled by the outpouring of community support cancer patients and personal sharing that we witness from our partners each year through the Campaign.
This year, the Maximize Life Campaign will kick off on October 1st, with patient-centered awareness events to take place in Chile, Taiwan, Mongolia and China. 40 additional events will be held worldwide through October 31st. Make sure to follow The Max Foundation’s Facebook and Twitter (@stompoutcancer) for regular event updates from partners and photos. If you post Campaign related photos, make sure to use the hashtag #MaximizeLife2016! I also encourage you to visit the Maximize Life Campaign website where you can view an interactive map of the events scheduled throughout the month, photos from past events.
Thank you to all our brave and determined partners who continue to make the Maximize Life Campaign a source of inspiration for people facing cancer in your communities. Stay tuned for story highlights from advocates throughout the month and happy October!
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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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.
