Greetings from Las Vegas, NV! PUGTATO is on travel this week and this is a quick post to tell you about a wonderful global event taking place today. (Sorry East Coasters, I know the day is almost over. The time change caught up with me!) February 4, 2015 is World Cancer Day. World Cancer Day is an initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), which aims to reduce the global cancer burden, promote equity among cancer patients and put cancer control front and center on the global health agenda. Founded in 1933, over 800 organizations spanning 155 countries are a part of UICC.
Every year cancer kills millions of people. 8.2 million to be exact. What’s even scarier is that half of these moms, dads, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, are between the age of 30-69. Cancer is a global crisis. Deaths from cancer are expected to reach nearly 13 million per year without global commitment to changing patient outcomes.
World Cancer Day is an awareness campaign that shows each of us how we can contribute to reducing the global cancer burden. Yes, that’s right, individually we can make a difference. World Cancer Day also provides a show case for cancer solutions at all levels: institutional, provider, governmental. It puts the spotlight on solutions that are working across the cancer patient circle of care and across many different cancer types and strives to directly impact solutions that we have not yet discovered. World Cancer Day shows us that working together, we can make a difference. Together, reducing cancer deaths is “Not Beyond Us.”
This year World Cancer Day’s message focuses on four key components:
- Choosing healthier lives
- Delivering early detection
- Achieving treatment for all
- Maximizing quality of life
For more information please visit worldcancerday.org, and follow the movement online using hashtag #WorldCancerDay and/or #NotBeyondUs
PUGTATO 