Voices
‘I feel guilty sometimes’: a young carer reflects on three years of a losing battle to save his mum
In October 2020 when I was 16, our family life changed dramatically when my mother was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She had known about a lump in her breast for a few months, but she didn’t tell anyone, probably…
Voices from Gaza: caught between conflict and cancer
In every conflict, it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most. The great majority of Gaza’s population of two million now live in terrible conditions, with poor sanitation, limited access to clean water, infectious diseases rife and precarious access…
A more excellent way: Integration of science, medicine and holistic practices in Oncology and Life
The emotion is palpable as these words come through. I remember eagerly awaiting the new issue of Cancerworld when I was a medical student, at Serbia's Niš University, to read the fascinating journeys of those I so looked up to.…
Voices from WOF: “We have to shift from the thinking: we’ll tell everybody what to do and they will all get better”
What progress can we point to? I think there has been a lot of progress and it has been incremental. Ten years ago, one of the biggest obstacles was the belief that this is not going to work. When we…
Voices from WOF: “We need another approach to funding, where governments together with development banks play the overarching role”
What progress can we point to? Firstly, there is more awareness in the community about cancer, and that cancer is becoming increasingly a problem of developing countries. Fifteen years ago everyone was thinking that cancer was a disease of the…
Voices from WOF: “We need to ensure we have accountability, and simplify the metrics on what success looks like”
What progress can we point to? I think it has been a fabulous 10 years. We’ve really seen that the awareness and global political commitment is much stronger than 10 years ago. We have much better data, we publish the…
Voices from WOF: “We need to make care affordable and strengthen our health workforce”
What progress can we point to? I think there has been a tremendous amount of progress in understanding the dimensions and distribution of cancer as a growing global threat. Not only about the types of cancer in each region, but…
Voices from WOF: “In this post-Covid world we have new opportunities to harness technology”
What progress can we point to? In today’s global health world, we do now understand that noncommunicable diseases [NCDs] are a priority, and within NCDs, that cancer is the highest priority. But are countries discussing this, and thinking about strategies?…
Voices from WOF: “We need to think critically about how our healthcare system can deliver the best for patients”
What progress can we point to? In Africa, there is a growing awareness of cancers, not just among the healthcare professionals but also communities. This has been largely due to grassroots advocacy – people who were cancer champions coming out…
Voices from WOF: “We’ve been talking to decision makers for 20 years. It hasn’t worked. We have to engage better with the public”
What progress can we point to? In the last 10 years we have seen significant progress in science and the depth of understanding of cancer – its complexity and biology. We also have new tools available, so patients with cancer…