COVID-19 and Breast Cancer
During this time, EUROPA DONNA – The European Breast Cancer Coalition continues to provide our services, aiming to ensure as minimal an impact as possible on our programmes and plans advancing breast cancer advocacy. We are currently moving forward with various activities using virtual meetings and look forward to resuming our normal activities as soon as possible.
We realise this is a difficult and challenging period for all citizens and certainly for breast cancer patients and survivors as they may be at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 in a more serious form. We encourage everyone to follow the guidelines and requirements in force in their individual countries.
ABC Global Alliance Joint Statement on The Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Patient Organisations
On 6 July, the ABC Global Alliance together with 7 global cancer coalitions and alliances, representing 650 patient advocacy and other cancer organizations and the interests of over 14 million patients around the world, released a Statement to call for a global plan of action for cancer to meet the challenges of future pandemics or health crises. The statement highlights the need for patient advocacy organizations, governments and health services at the national and global level to work together with other key stakeholders including industry and academia, to ensure that we regain the ground that has been lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full document available here.
The Transforming Breast Cancer Together initiative, of which Europa Donna is a member, has published a statement highlighting some of the most pressing challenges that the COVID-19 outbreak has brought upon breast cancer patients.
We are also providing links here to resources that have been developed by EPF European Patients Forum and the ABC Global Alliance. The EPF is an umbrella organisation that works with patients’ groups in public health and health advocacy across Europe and has put together a resource page dedicated to COVID-19. The ABC Global Alliance, a multi-stakeholder platform for those interested in collaborating on common projects relating to advanced breast cancer, to inform patients and support oncology professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was primarily created for the MBC/ABC community, the resources can be useful to patients undergoing treatment for cancer, cancer survivors and those with a compromised immune system. These do not represent the opinions or recommendations of Europa Donna but may be helpful to you at this difficult time of crisis across Europe.
