Down the Pink Road

Pictures from the Cancer Awareness Walk

Cancer Awareness Walk - 27/2/11

In view of World Cancer Day, Cancer Survivors Day and International Childhood Cancer Day (Feb 2nd,4th,15th) Canstop is organising an cancer awareness Walk amongst the loca community inl Semmancherry. Registration is free, and all are welcome.

We plan to assemble at the Semmancherry Primary Health Centre at 830 am and walk through the Tamil Nadu Housing Board locality apart from conducting street theatre in aid of raising anti tobacco awareness.

Please do join in!

One Walk One Hope 24th Oct 2010

Once again its time for Canstop's 'One Walk One Hope'. Following the success of our Breast Cancer Awareness Walk last year with over 3000 attendees at the Marina, Canstop has decided to hold the walk again this year as well.

As many of you might know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This years walk will take place from the Lady Willingdon College Grounds.

Date : 24th October
Time : 3pm Onwards (Registration)
4pm - Flag off
Venue: Lady Willingdon College Grounds, Kamraj Salai, Triplicane.

I hope that amongst those of you who read about this and are in Chennai make it a point to come, and if you can't or are someplace else, please do spread the word to as many people as possible!

World No Tobacco Day 2010

Our programs for World No Tobacco Day this year will cover screening camps for Oral Cancers, Awareness Talks - including special sessions with all MTC drivers and conductors, Sticker Campaigns to enlighten motorists about Tobacco and cancer.

World No Tobacco Day 2010 fast approaches. This years WHO theme for WNTD is - Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women.

Here is some information from the WHO website:

Controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women is an important part of any comprehensive tobacco control strategy. World No Tobacco Day 2010 will be designed to draw particular attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. It will also highlight the need for the nearly 170 Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in accordance with their constitutions or constitutional principles.

Women comprise about 20% of the world's more than 1 billion smokers. However, the epidemic of tobacco use among women is increasing in some countries. Women are a major target of opportunity for the tobacco industry, which needs to recruit new users to replace the nearly half of current users who will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases.

Especially troubling is the rising prevalence of tobacco use among girls. The new WHO report, Women and health: today's evidence, tomorrow's agenda, points to evidence that tobacco advertising increasingly targets girls. Data from 151 countries show that about 7% of adolescent girls smoke cigarettes as opposed to 12% of adolescent boys. In some countries, almost as many girls smoke as boys.

World No Tobacco Day 2010 will give overdue recognition to the importance of controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women. As WHO Director-General Margaret Chan wrote in the aforementioned report, "protecting and promoting the health of women is crucial to health and development – not only for the citizens of today but also for those of future generations".

Canstop will keep you posted for further updates!

Canstop's Annual Event - Anita Ratnam's 'MA3KA'

Hello Everyone, Canstop's 12th birthday is around the corner, and what better way to celebrate it than one of Anita Ratnam's own productions - her latest offering - 'MA3KA'. As Ms.Ratnam commented at the press meet, one of Canstop's first fundraisers was conducted by her, and now after 12 years she returns for MA3KA.

MA3KA is a tribute to all the women around us, grandmothers, mothers and daughters – and is a testament to the qualities and values that they bring to us in those capacities in every facet of our lives.It promises to be a refreshingly original production of a one of a kind nature.

From The Hindu:



Art buffs in the city will soon have a chance to witness ‘Ma3ka', a production featuring dancer Anita Ratnam that promises to be an off-beat and rather interesting tribute to women.

The programme, to be held on March 24, at the Chinmaya Heritage Centre, Chetpet, at 7 p.m., will mark the 12th anniversary of Can-Stop, a charitable organisation working in the area of cancer care for the underprivileged.

Addressing a press conference in this connection here on Tuesday, Ms. Ratnam said collaborating with an organisation working for such a cause meant a lot to her, for she herself had lost very close and dear relatives to cancer.

Though the artist has worked on the production keeping in mind three special women in her life — her grandmother, mother and daughter — it would be something every individual can relate to, she said.

“All of us are surrounded by women with names of goddesses like Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Devi, and so on, but we somehow never seem to stop and think how different women enrich our lives,” she said.

Noting that the production would be very urban, contemporary, glamorous, and fun, she said television personality Revathy Sankaran would be the story-teller.

“She lends a very everyday, folksy colour to the narrative that will instantly make the audience feel at ease,” Ms. Ratnam said.

Anil Srinivasan and Vedanth Bharadwaj have scored the music for the production. Ms. Ratnam said the visual aesthetics would be a real departure from the conventional designs.
Children camp

Vijaya Bharathi Rangarajan, founder, Can-Stop, outlined the various activities of the organisation, including home visits, referrals and nutritional supplement schemes.

“We also organised a camp for children, called ‘He…Ho…Ha…' where ‘he' stands for health, ‘ho', for hope and ‘ha', for happiness,” she said.

‘Ma3Ka' was an event that would bring together everyone committed to the cause of cancer care and awareness, she added.

Nalini Radhakrishnan, CEO, Media Mix, said she was happy to be associated with organising the event. For details on passes, call: 26284256, 26144560 or 99410 07688, or write to canstop@smfhospital.org.

For more information on MA3KA please visit - http://www.ma3ka.com/

Funds raised from this event will go towards Canstop's Drug Bank which provides for the treatment and medical costs of needy cancer patients.

Please do spread the word ! Hope to see you all on the 24th :)

One Walk One Hope is Today!

Today is the Day!

One Walk One Hope - Hope everyone makes it down to the Marina Beach. 4 PM at the Labour Statue.

See you all there!


Todays article in the Times of India.

Also, if you haven't already, do check out our new WAP site. There is a downloadable 'Early Detection Guide' that is linked to the site.