HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE
While October 2024 as Breast Cancer Awareness Month is now in our rear view mirror, a recent event held at the San Juan Medical Center will strongly resonate with San Juaneño women who are suffering from the affliction. Helping Women & Others Foundation (HWAO) and Estée Lauder worked with the Caring Keri Foundation to donate a Biological Safety Cabinet to the Cancer Care center of the San Juan Medical Center. And at the official turnover ceremony held in the first week of November, San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora, his wife Keri, and Cong. Ysabel Zamora-Jornada were on hand to welcome HWAO Board members and Estée Lauder’s representative.
The Biological Safety Cabinet in their Chemotherapy Compounding Room will now give SJMC the freedom to personalize the chemotherapy sessions of their constituents; and have them receive their customized chemo treatment right there at the SJMC. Previously, they would be sent to the private hospitals within San Juan, and treated as regular patients. Now, with the final approval pending from the Department of Health (DOH), San Juan breast cancer survivors can head directly to their medical center, the Chemical Compounding Room will mix the chemo ‘cocktails’ in safety, and the survivors can make full use of their status as city constituents.
SJMC is presently a Level 2 hospital, as accredited by the DOH. Mayor Zamora made mention of how this addition to the healthcare capabilities of the facility will be of invaluable help as they strive to further improve to Level 3 standards, and be more responsive to the medical needs of San Juan constituents, across a broad range of treatments.
For HWAO, the turnover is the culmination of an initiative that was first discussed with Keri Zamora and her Caring Keri Foundation over a year and a half ago. Seeking a new project after HWAO had helped Philippine General Hospital (PGH) with a Bio-Hood Room for its cancer care ward, the SJMC emerged as an opportunity to work with an LGU where friendship and trust would play important factors in the decision-making process.
The brother of Mayor Francis’ father is a very close friend and business associate of Luis Virata’s late father. (Libet C. Virata is the HWAO chairperson.) Both Libet and Keri are breast cancer survivors, as are two other HWAO board members Bettina Osmena and Tang Singson. In short, there were interconnections and friendships that made working with the City of San Juan go smoother, and facilitated the donation and ward preparation.
The status of Estée Lauder as HWAO partner in securing the San Juan Safety Cabinet is itself a tried and tested relationship. The aforementioned Bio-Hood Prep Room in PGH, which practically doubled the existing capacity of PGH to dispense with out-patient chemo treatments, was also accomplished with Estée Lauder, and with Security Bank.
The ongoing history of Estée Lauder and breast cancer awareness and research is now a three-decade legacy. Started by Evelyn Lauder, daughter-in-law of Estèe Lauder; it’s best recognized for helping create the pink ribbon that is now such a globally recognized symbol of the advocacy.
The story is that it began with breast cancer survivor Charlotte Haley and her peach ribbon, that SELF magazine wrote about in the early 1990’s. When Haley refused to go commercial, SELF collaborated with corporate entities such as Estee Lauder to generate a new pink ribbon, and then collectively turned on the marketing tap, to create broad awareness. They’ve not looked back since, as the idea caught on in a big way, and effectively spread throughout the world.
That the turnover happened in November, is significant. The Philippines still leads ASEAN countries in incidence of breast cancer cases; and sadly, in fatalities resulting from breast cancer. That this is happening when breast cancer is often very treatable if caught early, is the supreme tragedy of the statistical facts. And as you can imagine, breast cancer itself doesn’t see October as some special month - but ravages women all months of the year.
So, it’s simply not enough to just think ‘breast cancer’ in October. No matter when, any step taken to help eliminate these fatalities happening is worth talking about from and hopefully, leads to more endeavors of that nature. We’re losing too many Filipinas to a disease that has no business racking up so many fatalities.