ECPC's member of the month December 2008 is:

ANITA WALDMANN

My Organisations

DLH = Deutsche Leukaemie- & Lymphom-Hilfe e.V. (German leukemia and lymphoma aid)
Federal organisation for supportgroups with adult patients and relatives with leukemia and lymphomas. The DLH is the German voice and advocate for adult patients with hematology diseases.

Myeloma Euronet, a non-profit network organization of multiple myeloma patient groups, is a European initiative dedicated to raising the awareness of multiple myeloma, an increasingly common form of bone marrow cancer.

My story

The first time I was confronted with the term ‘leukemia’ was in 1990. My son died of acute lymphocytic leukemia at the age of 27 in 1992.

After having composed educative material for patients, I started an active search for suitable bone marrow donors in 1991. Since then, more than 40 campaigns with about 60.000 potential donors have been collected, supported and organized in cooperation with the German Bone Marrow Donor Registry – “DKMS”.

Sixteen years ago I  founded one of the first supportgroups for adult leukemia patients & relatives in the Rhein-Main area.
In 1994 I abandoned my professional life in order to spend my time on 100% honorary work for the DLH as a founding member.
In 1995 I became an active DLH-board member (advocacy, public relations, organization, finances, human resource management, and training for group-leaders). 2001 I became chairwoman of the DLH.
I also founded several self-support-groups for leukemia- and lymphoma-patients and relatives all over Germany, because I believe of the benefit of networking.

Many contacts to other patient-self-support groups throughout Germany have been established as well as to other patients’ associations (e.g. the „Consortium of Federal Self Support Groups for Patients with/after Cancer“, part of the German Parity and Welfare Association  and the “Panel of chronically ill and disabled people”.
Beside that I’m a member of the German Cancer AID – Patient-Steering Committee and also a founding member and president of the Myeloma Euronet.

DLH is also a founding member of the International Lymphoma Coalition, Member of the European Leukemia Network. We are proud being member of the ECPC