2nd Patient Congress for People Living with CML, 28 Apr 2011 - another successful meeting!

Well, I am writing this report from this lovely city called Kuching, East Malaysia; which is about 2 hours traveling time by flight from Kuala Lumpur.

For the 2nd year, Patient Congress for People Living with CML was successfully took place in conjunction with Malaysia Society of Haematology Scientific Meeting. It took place yesterday, 28th April 2011, at Pullman Hotel, Kuching, Malaysia.



Yes, we did it again!

The congress was organized by The Max Foundation and Max Family Society Malaysia, made possible by the support from medical professional organization - Malaysian Society of Haematology; as well as industries – Novartis as the main sponsor, and AirAsia who donated a few seats for enable patients to fly in.

Patients and caregivers arrived as early as 830 am, full with enthusiasm.










Opening remarks by Dr LP Chew, representing Malaysian Society of Haematology.

Dr Chew is practicing in Hospital Kuching, and she was particularly excited as the patient congress was the first of its kind in East Malaysia.



After the sweet and short opening remarks, ice breaking and motivation session was facilitated by En Baba Ismail, registered counselor.

His interactive way of conducting the session successfully made the participants engaged, and took part in the ice breaking activity. This was the magic moment when we saw everyone turned into “one Max Family”. From the shy, quiet crowd, the room turned into a warm, relaxed atmosphere. Everyone opened up themselves and give out themselves 100% to this “newly formed family”.









Before we continue with the highlight of the session – CML Education Session, a nice lunch was served.



It followed by disease education session which started with an information, yet easy-to-follow overview lecture by Dr Haris Rahman.




It was then followed by small group discussion facilitate by haematologists and pharmacist – Dr Haris, Dr LG Lau, Dr LP Chew, Dr KM Chang and Selina Wee. The Malay-speaking and Mandarin-speaking groups arrangement has successfully overcome the challenges of delivering information in Malaysia as we Malaysian are speaking different languages due to the different races.

One after another question was asked, real experiences were shared among participants; and our haematologists and pharmacist were never failed to share their expert knowledge with the groups. If we never stopped the group, the session would continue to go on and on. We spent the good one hour and 15 minutes for this fruitful session.







In Max Family, we never forget to thank the professional teams whom have contributed their time and energy to help patients to live better in all the possible ways.

Thank you to our speakers!






Before we ended the 2nd Patient Congress for People Living with CML, a group photo is the must-do!