When someone facing cancer gains access to treatment, they gain access to life. With oral chemotherapies, access to treatment isn’t simply a one-time occurrence. Each and every day, tens of thousands of cancer patients take life-saving medication they receive free-of-cost – all thanks to the unseen work of partners, donors, and Max team members.
Treatment access means so much to us at The Max Foundation because we understand what it means to patients. We know so many people living beyond their cancer diagnoses because of the access we are able to provide. We know the privilege of watching patients grow, get married, start careers, and give back to their communities. While treatment access means the world to us and our patients, there are many who do not realize the freedom, joy, and dignity that comes with access to a daily dose.
The Max Malaysia team recently attended the Malaysian Society of Haematology (MSH) Annual Scientific Meeting. Surrounded by healthcare professionals, patient advocates, pharmaceutical organizations, and more, we thought it was a great opportunity to hear what people gain when they have access to treatment.
So we created a fun way for people to share their thoughts – hundreds of buttons with different answers to the question, “What does treatment access mean to you?” Attendees selected (and sometimes wrote out) words that reflected their thoughts and then pinned them to our display. Watch as delegates at the meeting shared their responses.
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What about you? What does treatment access mean to you and your community? Share your words in the comments below!
This experience with our new friends at the MSH Annual Scientific Meeting showed that everyone has a role in treatment access. We were proud to represent Max at MSH and to showcase the ways treatment access empowers patients around the world.
Mei Ching Ong is the Region Head of Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Mei Ching is based in our regional office located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Although growing up in a town facing the South China Sea with beautiful beaches, she is enjoying mountains, jungles and greens more than water, that explains she is spending most of her early morning during weekends in greens. Believing in everyone is connected with each another in this cycle we call life, Mei Ching also believes everyone has roles to play to strengthen the overall well-being of lives of human.
Dr. Jayasree Iyer, Executive Director of the Access to Medicine Foundation (ATMF), sits down with The Max Foundation and answers seven questions about the Access to Medicine Index, emerging trends in treatment access, and the role of collaborative access initiatives in treating chronic diseases.
In all these years, through all of the struggle and emotional upheaval of her diagnosis, Hira remained her active and busy self. She never missed her daily routine of the wharf and the bazaar, nor did she let her work and routine come in the way of her managing her CML.
Nestled in the mountains of Peru, there’s a place called Cusco where you’ll find the cancer patient group, Lazos Solidarios (Solidarity Ties). Yusef Herrera, created Lazos Solodarios to help cancer patients in this remote region in 2009 and today, the organization is supporting families facing CML and LLA, many of them children. Yusef, a dentist, became a committed advocate to close the cancer divide between these rural communities and their access to treatment and support.
