Tatev Margaryan: Global Shapers on Cancer

The beutiful city of Geneva, Switzerland, recently hosted the Global Shapers Annual Summit 2024, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. This highly anticipated event brought together over 500 young leaders, professionals, and innovators from around the world. Among the attendees was Tatev Margaryan, a fellow Global Shaper and the project manager of OncoDaily, who took the opportunity to delve into one of the most pressing health issues of our time: cancer.

The Global Shapers Community, a network of young people dedicated to driving positive change, convened in Geneva for a dynamic and inspiring summit. The event featured a mix of keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, and interactive sessions, addressing a wide array of global challenges, from climate change and education to health and social justice. The summit not only aimed to empower young leaders with knowledge and skills but also to foster a sense of community and collaboration among participants.

Amid the vibrant exchange of ideas and solutions, Tatev Margaryan stood out by focusing on cancer awareness, prevention, and support. Armed with curiosity and a commitment to health advocacy, she interviewed several fellow Shapers to gather their insights and perspectives on this critical issue.

Tatev Margaryan: Hi everyone, my name is Tatev Margaryan, I’m the project manager of OncoDaily and today I am in beautiful Geneva, Switzerland at the Global Shapers Summit 2024 in World Economic Forum, where more than 500 global shapers, young leaders and professionals from all over the world come together to network, to learn and to create new connections and memories together. I want to ask our global shapers how much do they know about cancer, so we will be asking them some questions related to cancer to see what they have to share with us.

What do you think are the most common signs and symptoms of cancer?

Shaper: The common signs and symptoms of cancer, which is very much affected worldwide, is breast cancer. What I know is a lump that develops in and around your breast area, which does not hurt, but it’s like a lump that keeps on moving, so that’s one of the common signs of breast cancer.

Tatev Margaryan: What do you think are the best ways to reduce cancer risk?

Shaper: You can reduce your risk to cancer if you go have an early detection, an early screening. Go screen yourself on different kinds of cancer so that you’re sure you don’t have one. Have a healthy lifestyle, take care of your body, take care of your mind and also eat healthy, do healthy things and be good.

Tatev Margaryan: What do you think are some of the lifestyle choices that can cause cancer risk?

Shaper: Some lifestyle choices that encourage the growth of cancer in our body are particularly the kind of food we eat, our diet. Foods that are like barbecue or highly roasted foods encourage the growth of cancer cells in our body, so for us to take good care of ourselves, it’s important that we watch the kind of food we eat.

Shaper – Our intake can actually encourage cancer growth. The lifestyle choices that actually gets us having cancer food are smoking and the food that we actually consume today, which are full of harmful chemicals and pesticides that comes bio-accumulated in our food.

Tatev Margaryan: What do you think is the best way to support cancer patients?

Shaper: It’s really hard. I think that the best way I know to do it would be by reaching out and asking them what, if anything, they need. I feel like so oftentimes after someone gets a diagnosis like that, they don’t really know where to go. It’s very isolating and so reaching out and letting them feel supported and loved sincerely is a really helpful way to connect with them.

Tatev Margaryan: What do you think is the most effective ways to cope with the stress and emotional burden that cancer causes?

Shaper: I think one of the most effective or efficient ways would be talking to your friends and talking to your surroundings, talking to the ones who care about you. I believe you have someone out there who would want to listen to you and I don’t want to be cheesy, but stay strong, hold on to life.

Shaper: So in the cases that when people feel something about the emotions in terms of the cancer diagnosis, I think the best way is first to be aware about what emotions that you are feeling right now and to be prepared to share it with the people that are your friends and family first.

Tatev Margaryan: What myths about cancer do you know?

Shaper: I have faced some common myths about cancer and I’d like to talk about them. First of all, cancer is real and you can definitely get it by just a bad chance, but you can also influence it with your own life habits. Not all cancer is deadly, but you should never underestimate its potency to harm you.

Shaper: What are the myths around cancer today? A lot of people think that only people who smoke or have bad habits can get cancer, but that is totally wrong. A lot of people who have bad genetics can also get cancers, but you also can just get it by chance. So please go check yourself, do the early screening and take care of yourself.

Tatev Margaryan: And what message do you have for people with cancer that are watching us right now?

Shaper: So I hope that you started treatment. I hope that it’s going well with you. There is a lot of side effects regularly to cancer.

Please be educated that it’s side effects and the whole result could be getting rid of the cancer and it’s doable. Please become cancer-free. Please keep the power with you and hopefully we’ll celebrate together.