I have been honored with the Diana Award 2023 – Christos Tsagkaris
I have been honored with the Diana Award 2023
Established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, The Diana Award is the most prestigious accolade a young person up to 25 years can receive for their social action or humanitarian work.
This award marks a growing commitment to advocating for health over the past years. It highlights health promotion efforts in a wide range of contexts, particularly among young professionals in Europe and beyond. It is difficult to recollect every moment of this journey, but some of its milestones certainly include contributing to european health policymaking activities, initially through some wonderful simulations and lately in real – world settings, delivering cancer prevention workshops all the way from Athens and Bucharest to Kant and Taipei, putting together initiatives ranging from a virtual art exhibition to a global students movement against COVID-19 with many amazing people and of course writing, writing and writing.
The whole journey has taught me to act, document and interact with like – minded people. It has also granted never – ending notifications, messages and calls – but this is for all the good reasons of knowing and working with tremendous people around the world, who I wouldn’t have met otherwise
At this point it is appropriate to thank all those who contributed to this journey, and this goes without saying! As Aristotle famously said, humans are social animals – therefore our progress is intertwined with the people who surround us.
However it is also necessary to acknowledge those few people in my very community and country who opposed my first steps and initiatives in the realm with outspoken skepticism – this helped me to seek allies, collaborators and concepts out of my field and my country and, frankly, out of the box.
I extend special thanks to my colleagues and friends who nominated me for this esteemed award: Yeva Margaryan and Eleonora Varntoumian from the Institute of Cancer and Crisis, a scientific and social initiative dedicated to supporting individuals and populations facing a dual aggression armed with bullets and mutations; and Elina Sauka from BIMCO, an extraordinary conference that holds a special place in my heart.