What organizations, societies or groups are there to support/help patient with this type of cancer?

1. National Cancer Council

 

National Cancer Council or in Malay, MAKNA which stands for Majils Kanser Nasional is a non profit organization working towards every single effort to aid the fraction of society who is suffering the pain and help them to fight the cancer.

MAKNA is registered under the Register of Societies on 10th November 1994 and had its first official launch on 30th March 1995. The founder of MAKNA is Dato Mohd Farid Afirrin.

MAKNA has always been mobilizing resources to provide curative, preventive and support services to cancer patients and their families. It makes use of the expertise and finance from all sectors of society to reduce the burden and suffering of cancer patients have to experience.

MAKNA makes its best effort to provide assistance to financially-challenged cancer patients in term of treatment cost through MAKNA’s Bursary Programme. In order to achieve this objective, it constantly carries out fund-raising projects to raise funds for the patients as well as to sustain cancer associated community services.

It provides screening test and diagnostic facilities to enable early detection of cancer. It also supports and encourages clinical researches on cancer, in the hope of new treatment could be found. Another unique way it helps the young cancer survivors is to provide scholarship to them through Young Cancer Survivor Scholarship Programs.

Over the decades, MAKNA does not give in for its fight against the cancer while waging countless successful ‘campaigns’ over the years.

 2. National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM)

The mission of the organization is to ensure no Malaysian fears any form of cancer by creating a comprehensive understanding of cancer and lead way to early detection and prevention of the disease and meanwhile providing the best probable care for those individual affected by cancer.

National Cancer Society Malaysia is a charity body registered under laws of the Malaysian Socities Act and Registrar of Societies Malaysia. It is tax exempted body as it serves for charity purposes. It came up as the first cancer associated non-government organization that provides care and support and nevertheless education for those cancer patients.

The founder of NCSM is Dato’ Dr S.K. Dharmalingam. It is officially launched by Malaysia’s former Prime Minister YAB Tun Abdul Razak. Currently it is under the patronage of the Sultan of Perak. Its financial source comes primarily from voluntary contributions of the public.

Being the sole charitable organization which provides horrible cancer treatment and relevant support to patients and their caregivers, NCSM stands with them to deal with the cancer of various phases through its 5 cancer centers, namely: Cancer Treatment Centre, Women’s Cancer Detection Centre, Nuclear Medicine Centre, Resource & Wellness Centre and the Children’s Home of Hope.The services provided are highly subsidized, if not free of charge to eligible patient.

One can assess this organization deeper by logging on to its website http://cancer.org.my/. NCSM has its own building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The address is 1st Floor, 66 Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur. Instead, one can call up NCSM through the telephone number 03-2698 7300 or by facsimile, which is 03-26984300.

  
3. Melanoma Research Foundation

It is the largest independent national organization devoted to melanoma in United States. It was founded in 1996 by a melanoma patient, Diana Ashby.

This organization has gone a long way to support the medical research for finding essential treatment and cure for melanoma patient. It educates patients and physicians the ways to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. It also acts as an advocate to the melanoma society as to raise the awareness towards melanoma cancer and the need for treatment once contracted among the public.

In year 2009, it starts a partnership with the Society of Melanoma Research (SMR) to launch an International melanoma Congresses, which is an open public meeting that puts out a platform for investigators, clinicians and students to have their research results to be shared with an international, multidisciplinary audience and search for areas for further collaboration. The meeting report entitled: Melanoma from Bench to Bedside was published, becoming the official journal of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies and the Society for Melanoma Research.

On October 31, 2011 the MRF starts a new initiative- CURE OM which aims to improve the lives of people affected by ocular melanoma. CURE OM works to accelerate the development of effective treatments and a cure for ocular melanoma.

MRF helps the melanoma patients by helping them to gain a better grasp of cancer centers in their area. These treatment centers have a great deal of experience with melanoma, which could be an advantage when the patient is losing at which center to get the treatment from. MRF helps the patient to locate a suitable treatment center that specializes in melanoma.

In collaboration with CancerCare, MRF sets up a free patient hotline to provide counseling and some practical assistance to help anyone facing a melanoma diagnosis. This hotline is staffed by CancerCare’s professional social workers.

MRF’s website itself is a great patient’s community. The website provides great resources for the melanoma patients, such as general information on melanoma to some social or even financial assistance it is capable to help with. The community is largely the melanoma patients which encourage each other to cope with the emotional stress they are facing of. They can interact through the forum and chat rooms to discuss their concern and voice their opinions.

4. Melanoma Patient Australia

It is founded in 2006, seeking to fill in the gap in patient focused access to melanoma specific information. Melanoma Patient Australia gives emotional support for the patients and their families through a national network making up of support and information.

Its primary goal is to provide a common place for melanoma patient to meet up and share the common experiences. Knowing the patient would feel isolated, confused and frightened by the time the disease is diagnosed, MPA comes up to ensure the diagnosed could feel supported and informed by providing a website forum for the patients to interact.

Apart form that, MPA also provides inspiration and hope to patients via some real survival stories and general publications. Besides, it tries to raise the profile of melanoma and highlights the necessity of prevention and early detection. This is because melanoma cancer if diagnosed early enough can be cured by basic surgery. For this reason, MPA works in tandem with health professionals and Skin Cancer groups to promote the prevention and early detection as well as to raise the awareness of mass towards melanoma cancer.

Financially, it provides a mechanism for people to take part in fund raising activities to raise fund for melanoma patients. Being known as an advocacy organization, MPA seeks to provide a national voice in the interest of melanoma patients and their families thereby ensuring melanoma deserve the voice it requires.

MPA through its melanoma community hub has been involving a lot in public activities. In the coming 27 November of 2011, it is organizing a melanoma public forum which serves to deliver the updated information regarding of new treatments, clinical trials and therapies for melanoma cancer. Another event is the national skin cancer action week 2011. MPA is planning to conduct a range of activities during this annual awareness week to highlight the importance of melanoma awareness and to disclose the unmet needs of melanoma patients in Australia.

MPA can be found at Facebook (facebook.com/MelanomaPatientAustralia) and Twitter (twitter.com/melanoma support). It as well sets up a peer hotline to support the patients.

5. Melanoma Hope Network

As its name suggest, it is a non-profit organization established to bring hope, education and direct personal support to the individual afflicted with melanoma cancer. It has been always interested in gathering patients affected by the different stages of melanoma.

MHN intend to support medical research, stimulate patient awareness on the necessity of clinical trials and assist patients and their primary physicians to come up with the suitable trials for the particular stage of disease. MHN is working hard to serve as a central place for all melanoma centers across United State to come to collaboration of useful date and for the updated education for their staff.

It is built around an internet web site designed to bring patients, their families, primary physicians and proprietary drug treatment developers together to match the most appropriate treatments for the particular diagnosed cases.

Trial Finder tool provided by MHN is what sets it apart from other organizations as well providing help for melanoma patients. If one has been diagnosed with melanoma, time is what matters and getting the right therapy is critical. By answering a series of pre-designed questions regarding of the current condition and nature of the melanoma, Trial Finder tool can help the individuals to track the trials they are compatible with. The patient will be further notified by an email issued by MHN if any new and suitable trials are available for them.

MHN is awarded 2 prestigious awards by The American Academy of Dermatology. It is also voted to as the best healthcare website by Dorlands. These awards increase the reliability of MHN being efficient in bring melanoma patients the most useful resources especially information on treatment options.

Melanoma cancer is a fast developing diseases, if left untreated, it can be fatal, and in this sense, immediate treatment will be important in saving the patient’s life. Knowing some patients might encounter financial difficulty, MHN is especially concerned of the matter and has been trying to raise a series of fundraising events to help the patient fast.