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MEDIA RELEASE
June 4, 2010
Sign up and show your support for young people living with cancer
CanTeen ambassadors including Dan Carter, Maria Tutaia, Paige Hareb, Lisa Tamati and Scott Dixon will be amongst the first New Zealanders to sign a petition to show their support for the International Charter of Rights for Young People with Cancer on June 8.
The New Zealand launch of the Charter follows the international launch at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, England, on Monday New Zealand time.
For New Zealand, the charter aims to ensure the voices of young people between 13 and 24 years old are heard and their circumstances improved, through a set of ten rights that address their unique needs, says CanTeen CEO David Pearce.
These include the right to:
- Receive education about cancer and its prevention including early detection
- Have access to suitably qualified multi-disciplinary medical specialists with significant experience in treating cancer in this age group
- Receive age-appropriate support including, but not limited to, psychosocial, community and palliative support services
- Fertility preservation, as well as information and counseling concerning short-term and long-term effects of cancer and treatment which affect fertility
Mr Pearce says the charter is an international initiative, the result of a collaboration of like minded organisations, including the Lance Armstrong Foundation in the USA and the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK, joining forces to advance the rights of young people living with cancer around the world.
“Now that the charter has been launched we’re asking people from all walks of life around the world to sign a petition via the dedicated website www.cancercharter.org. We’re expecting more than 100,000 people to sign up in the coming weeks.”
The charter has the support of the Ministry of Health, which with CanTeen also recently launched its Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Service Specification to address the gap in treatment for young people with cancer.
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Editors note:
CanTeen is a New Zealand peer support organisation for young people aged 13 to 24 living with cancer. It is a place where members who might be patients, siblings or bereaved siblings, can share their experiences with other young people who know what it is like to deal with cancer.
CanTeen’s mission is to support, develop and empower young people living with cancer through a national peer support network, and professional educational and recreational programmes.
CanTeen provides opportunities for almost 1500 young cancer patients, their siblings and bereaved siblings to gain skills and learn to cope with the cards they have been dealt.
CanTeen has 13 regional branches across the country and is solely reliant on its own fundraising efforts and the generosity of individuals, the community and its corporate partners, as it receive no government funding.
For more information, please contact:
Melanie McKay Kimberley Burcher
Star Public Relations CanTeen New Zealand
09 912 7827 09 308 5901
021 0200 8550 021 966 735
melanie@starpublicrelations.co.nz kimberleyb@canteen.org.nz