2 Nov 2009
Cancer Patients remain united in their commitment to address the issues facing all European citizens affected by Cancer
At a two day cancer summit, the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) brought together more than 100 representatives of patient organisations from 30 European countries to discuss the pressing concerns for European citizens diagnosed with Cancer. The conference called “ECPC Members in Action 2009” was the fourth in a series of “ECPC Masterclasses on Cancer Patient Advocacy”, this time held 24-25 Oct 2009 in Munich.
The “ECPC Masterclasses” particular aim to
- identify how ECPC, in close cooperation with its members, can play a meaningful role in developing Europe-wide initiatives to tackle the significant and growing burden of cancer,
- to identify ways how ECPC can encourage partnerships and interactions between different stakeholders on the pan-European and national level,
- to ensure that representatives of cancer patient organisations have the information, tools, knowledge and support they need to advocate on behalf of patients in their countries.
This 4th Masterclass represented the continued commitment to a process which ensures that all cancer patients are able to work within a partnership, no matter where they live and which cancer they are affected by. This was reflected by the diverse range of participants at “ECPC Members in Action 2009” which included patients, but also clinicians, academics, politicians and industry, all striving to encourage innovative, creative thinking in order to stimulate a change to the wider public perceptions on cancer. The overwhelming conclusions were that patient organisations and their advocates need to advocate on a series of concrete measures to address the inequities between countries and regions, experienced by patients in terms of prevention, correct diagnosis, effective treatment and optimal care in cancer.
At the conference it was discussed what Europe can do for the citizens and cancer patients at the national level, what "Health Technology Assessment" and health economics means to patient groups, and what the newly established "European Partnership on Action Against Cancer" plans to achieve. ECPC was also offering workshops e.g. on how patient groups could apply EU Health Policy in their local advocacy work, on what the specific challenges of cancer at the workplace are, and on codes of practice of patient groups working with the healthcare industry. A number of ECPC member organisations presented their own success stories and learnings from their campaigns, in order to give best practice examples in how patient groups could help improve the reality for patients in their countries.
Alojz Peterle, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and co-chair of “MEPs Against Cancer” (MAC), highlighted this by speaking about EU Policy initiatives such as the “European Partnership for Action Against Cancer”. The initiative was launched in September 2009 by the European Commission, and is scheduled to be fully operational by December 2009. He stated that this important EU initiative will provide the ideal opportunity for member organisations to work together and propose different actions to both their national and EU representatives. Prof. Michel Coleman, Professor of Epidemiology and Vital Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, argued convincingly that patient groups should use existing evidence provided on the available data registries to bring about changes in their countries. He added that in order to do that, patient groups need to ensure that robust population-based National Cancer Registries are being rolled out.
The "ECPC Members in Action” conference closed with both Mr. Alojz Peterle and Mrs.Jolanta Kwasniewska, the former First Lady of Poland as well as Founder and President of the Foundation "Communication Without Barriers", receiving the ECPC awards in recognition of their hard work in raising the profile of cancer to the European level and helping to save lifes from cancer. In receiving this award, Mr. Peterle MEP spoke about his personal experience with cancer, a struggle which inspired him to become one of the key drivers of MAC. He insisted that the EU can play a central role in the cancer battle - in partnership with its citizens.
The “ECPC Members in Action 2009” conference has again shown that cancer patient organisations must speak with a single voice across all cancers, and grasp the opportunity to campaign for a change. In cooperation with all other key friends and allies, they have the opportunity to bring about change for cancer patients at national level where inequalities and substandard treatment are still a reality for far too many patients.
More information about the conference:
More information about the "ECPC Members in Actions 2009" can be found here:
http://www.ecpc-online.org/events-a-calendar/masterclass-2009.html
For more information please contact:
European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC)
ECPC Office
Tel.: +49 89 62836807
EMail:
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http://www.ecpc-online.org
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