Report by FOM Soumya
The Max Foundation along with Dr. Prasad P Gunari’s initiative organised the Patient Support Group Meeting on Sunday 19th November 2017. This started off with the initial agenda set by Ashika where each FOM volunteers were assigned a list of survivors and caregivers whom we had to contact to inform about the meet which was scheduled.
Each FOM volunteer took great initiative in contacting the survivors & caregivers about the Meet happening in Dharwad for the first time & the benefits of the meeting. Most of them responded to the call & showed their interest in attending this meet though they were not from Dharwad.
We had mainly FOM volunteers from Bangalore who showed their pro-activeness in getting this meet successful. Our special thanks to Shankar, Shailaja, Mr & Mrs. Ashok who leaded this meeting in making it successful. Of course we had FOM Volunteer Ravi from Hubli and also Dr. Prasad who took the lead in getting arrangements done.
We had the registrations open for the survivors & the caretakers who were keen in attending this meet and were provided with the handouts. Opening the meet we had Dr. Prasad Gunari and one of the survivors with lighting up the Diya followed by the National Anthem. We had Welcome speech by Rekha, then Ashika took over with the agenda of the day. We had Beena who started off with the introduction of The Max Foundation. Of course how can we forget not telling about Max’s story to people?
Later we had compliance details provided by Beenaji & narrated by Ashika in Kannada which included the importance of updating the telephone number, address & the dosage of the survivors. We had a small briefing about Friends Of Max by Ravi.
We had Dr. Prasad Gunari talk about the various stages of a CML diagnosis & the treatments which are mandatory for the CML survivors. It was a very interactive meet as Dr. Prasad encouraged everyone to get involved and made it a lively session.Different phases of CML was very well explained by Dr. Prasad which included chronic, accelerate & blast phase & to make sure it is in chronic phase & does not go to the next phase.
There was an interactive Q&A session which was addressed by Dr Prasad as he answered all the questions put in by the patients & the caregivers. All the participants were given an opportunity to speak to the doctors & get an answer to their queries and we would specially thank the doctor for taking the time out and attend the meet. And Of course Beena and Ashika for taking the lead and making it more interactive.
We later had knowledge sharing and various experiences which was shared by FOM volunteers by Shankar, Mrs. Ashok Kashyap, Vikram, Soumya & Prakash. We had vote of thanks by Ashika & Prakash. A small briefing about the Chai For Cancer events was given by Beena & Ashika & also shared the website details. The photo sessions concluded the meet.
