Christos Tsagkaris: Can young people contribute to cancer prevention and control?
Christos Tsagkaris shared on LinkedIn:
“Can young people contribute to cancer prevention and control?
I had the chance to give a different talk earlier today at the inaugural conference of the Global Cancer Movement – instead of a presentation the audience and I listened to a conversation between the Minister of Health of Listenbourg* and a youth cancer advocate.
We debunked the mainstream critique against young people being inexperienced and impulsive and outlined their potential in health promotion and health policy making in a dynamic and increasingly digital landscape.
Examples were brought up to highlight how young people have spread the word, co-created and delivered bold recommendations and oftentimes action against cancer and major carcinogens such as tobacco and alcohol. From the youth ambassadors program of the ECAC, the European Health Parliament and the Madrid Declaration for a Tobacco Free Generation in Europe all the way to the Y20 India 2023 and the World Food Forum 2024.
As the manifesto on improving cancer care in conflict-impacted populations made clear, maintaining youth presence in cancer prevention and control in crisis settings is vital. As the work of LAMSA Lebanon against substanceuse exemplifies this is also possible (Muriel Dib, Yvonne Elise Germanos, Zeina Moukarzel.)
The list of examples is long and many of these, either those that I have had the chance to be part of or those that I have been following online and mentioned in the script stimulated a series of questions from the audience. The questions called for ensuring the continuum of youth engagement as well as ensuring participation of people with lived experience and/or minority background.
Parleying with the Minister of Health of a well-known fictional european country, Listenbourg, served as a metaphorical landscape for a dialogue – the genre of civic scientific debate introduced by Plato and used until the times of Galileo. Inspiration from Dr. Gauden Galea’s talk during the EUPHA – European Public Health Association 2024 conference and a tone of AI helped turn the script into a fictional but still probable conversation, a format that each of us can enrich with their experience and arguments.
The list of acknowledgements to initiatives and individuals enabling and working for youth participation in cancer control is long. Although I cannot mention everyone, I was happy to share the conference stage with good colleagues and friends including Amil Družić, George Kapetanakis (Hellenic Cancer Federation | ELLOK), Maria (Masha) Babak, Jemma Arakelyan (The Institute of Cancer and Crisis (ICC)).
Heartfelt thanks to Prof. Gevorg Tamamyan and Dr. Yeva Margaryan, for extending the invitation!”
Christos Tsagkaris is the Social Media Editor at JBI Evidence Implementation and an External Consultant and Greek Representative at EVID Action Youth Network. He is currently a Resident Doctor at Kinderspital Zürich. Additionally, he holds positions as a Board Member for the European Commission and a Research Fellow at ETH Zürich, contributing to various initiatives and research projects in the medical and scientific communities.
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