Greetings from India!

We had a Patient Support Group meeting in Mumbai. This is the first time when all the CMLers joined hands to celebrate GIST Awareness Day. As GIST awareness day (13th July) was just the day before our scheduled Mumbai Meeting we wanted to combine both and make it a bigger celebration. We wanted to make it really special for our GIST patients who are a small but a very important and strong part of our group. As (Viji) Amma so aptly describes it CML & GIST are strange bedfellows one is a rare Leukaemia and the other an even rarer Sarcoma but Glivec has brought them together and now there’s no keeping them apart. This was the whole focus of our meeting.

Our GIST champions were called on stage one by one to share their journey. All the three speakers spoke so well and it filled our survivors with so much hope and happiness. Our GIST champions have been living with cancer for many years now but they have never lost hope and triumphed over cancer hence they are truly our champions. They always have such wise and inspiring words to share. In the end we had an equally inspiring and flawless GIST presentation which touched everyone’s heart and it was made by the Max team. The presentation and the music with it struck a chord with the crowd and everyone applauded. In the end there was a cake cutting ceremony for our GIST patients to celebrate their special day.