How We Help: Mesothelioma Awareness Day 2022
Advocacy
Written by Sean Marchese, MS, RN | Edited By Walter Pacheco
Mesothelioma Awareness Day takes place every year on Sept. 26. This year, The Mesothelioma Center is ramping up its community efforts to further raise awareness of this rare disease.
Every year, doctors diagnose more than 3,000 people with mesothelioma cancer in the United States, and asbestos-related diseases claim the lives of thousands more.
The Patient Advocates at The Mesothelioma Center have spent years building a network of medical specialists and support groups to share with the community. Our Medical Outreach and Veterans Outreach teams connect people to extraordinary resources daily.
Our accomplishments since last year’s Mesothelioma Awareness Day are astounding. We’ve enrolled more people in our support group, provided financial support to hundreds of patients and families, and held several webinars hosted by renowned mesothelioma specialists.
In 2022, we also launched our Community Outreach Partnership program designed to spread awareness through educational programs and government organizations. We’ve already partnered with universities and state governments to develop exceptionally tailored materials, and that’s only the beginning.
Support and Resources Available Through Patient Advocates
On Mesothelioma Awareness Day, patients and families share their inspiring stories and the resources that helped them cope with a mesothelioma diagnosis. This rare cancer can be devastating, and many patients may not know their options.
Sharing support and resources is essential, especially on Mesothelioma Awareness Day. Patient Advocates provide over a dozen free services and mesothelioma resources to those in need, connecting them to eligible clinical trials, support groups and more. They have helped thousands of patients and families thanks to their diverse expertise and background.
Our team includes an on-staff medical doctor, a registered nurse and a former U.S. Army captain. Together, they have decades of years in service and leadership pivotal to aiding the mesothelioma community.
Patient Advocates have helped more than 200 mesothelioma patients access top treatment options in the past year by scheduling appointments with local specialists and cancer centers and matching them with clinical trials. We’ve also connected more than 650 mesothelioma patients and their families with our on-staff doctor or nurse.
As the nation’s most trusted mesothelioma resource, The Mesothelioma Center helps over half of all mesothelioma patients in the U.S. get the help they need, including more than 1,400 patients and families in the past year. During that time, the Medical Outreach team helped about 125 patients get appointments with top mesothelioma specialists.
Over the past year, our Veterans Outreach team has been busy connecting with more than 600 Veterans Service Officers, bringing our entire network to more than 1,700 VSOs. They’ve helped nearly 300 veterans, assisted with over two dozen VA claims for veterans with mesothelioma and hosted more than a dozen training sessions about asbestos claims specifically for VSOs.
A Year of Achievements for The Mesothelioma Center
Since last year’s Mesothelioma Awareness Day, we’ve increased our efforts to raise awareness by adding four new professional contributors and attending nearly a dozen events and conferences in the mesothelioma community.
Cancer research is vital for eventually finding a mesothelioma cure. In the past year, we’ve donated approximately $5,000 to mesothelioma research and connected with more than 400 new medical professionals.
Mesothelioma support groups help patients find others with similar experiences, where they often form long-lasting bonds. Since last year, we’ve enrolled more than 130 new mesothelioma patients and caregivers in one of our virtual support groups.
There’s no end to how many people we can help as they navigate a mesothelioma diagnosis. Over the past year, we created nearly 400 customized mesothelioma guides and hosted four educational webinars with mesothelioma experts to help patients learn more about their diagnosis. Next year, we’ll raise the bar even higher thanks to new community partnerships.
Raising Awareness with Community Partnerships
Since June 2022, The Mesothelioma Center has built four community partnerships thanks to a new initiative that leverages our incredible resources to raise awareness through educational materials.
Our first success with the Community Partnership program was building a relationship with the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee. FAMU was in the 2022 U.S. News & World Report ranking of top national public universities. We partnered with Alan Becker, Ph.D., a professor of environmental and occupational health.
Becker needed extensive, high-quality asbestos information for his students. We developed custom teaching materials for his graduate students specializing in public health and toxicology. Raising awareness of asbestos exposure and disease among the younger generation is vital.
The Mesothelioma Center also recently collaborated with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Migrant Services Committee. We presented crucial asbestos information to members of state and federal agencies representing seasonal farmworkers, nonprofits, educational institutions and research groups.
Raising awareness honors those currently battling mesothelioma and those we’ve lost to asbestos-related illnesses. Year after year, The Mesothelioma Center will continue to expand our community efforts and outreach initiatives out of respect for everyone affected by asbestos.
