Cancer impacts entire families, not just the person receiving the diagnosis. Salsabila was 16 when she found out her father had marginal zone lymphoma.
She’s the eldest of three siblings, living with her family in Malaysia. Navigating her father Mr. Azmi’s symptoms and treatment was difficult for them.
Despite these challenges, Salsabila continued to study and participate in extracurricular activities with the help of Max Schooling, a program that provides education grants to families impacted by cancer.
The program helps parents buy books for their children, pay for transportation to school, take part in activities, and share in social events. The Max team also provides emotional support and care directly to the families each month.
In May 2024, Salsabila earned straight As on her Malaysia National Examination. Next up, she’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree in international communication at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
She will now be able to pursue her dream of becoming a language teacher. Also, Mr. Azmi is in remission and has been able to return to work.
Salsabila’s mother, Mrs. Elmy, expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the Max team when they checked in, thanking everyone who has supported Max Schooling and hoping that all their efforts will be met with ease and success.
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.
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.
Each year, The Max Foundation chooses a colleague to receive our Excellence in Patient Advocacy Award, honoring a member of our global team who has done something especially remarkable that year. On December 17th, we were delighted to present this year’s Excellence in Patient Advocacy Award to Viji Venkatesh, Region Head for South Asia, for her tireless dedication to the patients she serves.
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.
