This year we started the GAD 2019 campaign on July 6th on social media to raise awareness and create expectations prior to our July 13th meeting.
Patients, families and friends sent us pictures with a message to complete the sentence: “Collaborating and working together let’s make possible…” We mounted the pictures on the frame designed for the campaign and published them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The initiative had a great acceptance and we have received almost 80 pictures that we will keep on publishing until August 10th, when we will end the campaign on the 5th Anniversary of Fundación GIST Chile. We took advantage of the campaign to support our ongoing efforts in Chile advocating for a National Cancer Law that will protect all cancer patients.
On July 13th, we had our monthly meeting with patients, caregivers and friends. Together with Andrea Fernández, psychologist , we had an opportunity to share each person’s joys and worries, share information of the Ley Ricarte Soto (which is the law that will cover imatinib and sunitinib for unresectable and/or metastatic GISTs), and also to discuss the urgency for a National Cancer Law to cover the unmet needs of all cancer patients.
We had as a featured speaker, Magdalena Vergara, a psychologist with experience in “Mindfulness,” from whom we learned about a meditation and relaxation technique that can help one have a better quality of life by being aware of “the here and the now”. We were taught simple exercises that help us to connect with our inner selves and with our emotions. It was a great and inspiring meeting!
Fundación GIST Chile: https://gist.cl/
