friendsofmax.info

What exactly is Friends Of Max (FOM) and who are the people behind it?

• As described elsewhere as well, FOM consists of individuals impacted directly/indirectly by CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) or GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumor), in short FOM consists of people and families who are impacted by health defects, which are difficult to spell and pronounce (Try spelling the expanded forms of CML and GIST without Google to help you).
• Self supported and organized by these impacted souls, today there are thousands of active members of the Friends of Max, mostly all of them GIPAP recipients, spread out in 6 chapters throughout India. We meet regularly for mutual support and educational sessions (which is invariably followed by food, music and a display of ‘aliveness’ that would give most of you goose pimples).
• Once a year, we organize an All India Friends of Max meeting with the slogan “Together We Share and Learn”; we invite a panel of distinguished physicians who lead a three hour educational session for participants who are primarily patients and their care givers

What does the logo and slogan mean?

• No Oligvy did not do it, neither had Mr. Jumaani have anything remotely to do with it.
• Our logo and slogan was done by some of our friends within FOM, who had rather be nameless (that’s a cultural trait within FOM, we behave more like a lumpen than individuals…yes, Utopia is just a few blocks down on our street).
• The red drop of blood is that very drop that unites this family, the one that behaved truant enough for us to be lumped together as “CML”/”GIST” ….and yet (selflessly enough) moves our bodies.
• The yellow hand signifies the joy of sunrise, the harvest from the earth around us (ever notice why most grains tend to be shades of yellow), the color of the middle path (wondered why you see yellow at traffic signals during transitions?), more importantly it represents regeneration and valuing the precious (that’s the yellow vermilion for you), and lastly the most important reason, the graphic designers were listening to “Yellow Submarine” while they were helping us create the logo…… (and you thought yellow only signifies plague and dark times!)
•  “Together we share and learn” - any attempt to explain this simple statement is going to be classified as fluff, and nah, we don’t like our writings to be called fluff.