OCA’s Walkathon goes virtual

The Oman Cancer Association’s 17th annual virtual Walkathon is to be held on May 22 and 23 under the auspices of the Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Minister of Health. This year OCA’s Walkathon goes global with the theme ‘Together We Win’. The platform will be open for 48 hours at a stretch. The Annual Walkathon is a landmark sustainable programme fulfilling the OCA’s objectives, especially in awareness and advocacy. It aims to extend the Association’s hands to cancer patients, survivors, and their families that they are not alone in their struggle to overcome the negative impact of cancers by getting the community together and raising their morale and reminding them they have a partner in their struggle. At the virtual press conference, the Chairman of Oman Cancer Association, Dr Waheed al Kharousi said, “At the onset, I would like to thank the Minister of Health Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi for accepting to be the patron of this unique, humanitarian and landmark programme despite his busy and overloaded schedule.” “The global Covid-19 pandemic amongst other negative issues has changed the modus operandi for awareness events. The Oman Cancer Association is being very diligent to fight the pandemic and fully practicing and applying our government and the Supreme Committee’s laws but also appreciating the importance of creating awareness on cancers and supporting the cancer patients, their families and the community at large we are determined to continue with our programmes and accept the unfortunate paradigm change by remodelling the mode of implementation,” pointed out Dr Waheed. As the Annual Walkathon is an important programme of the Association, the 17th Annual Walkathon will be virtual reaching to all our people nationally and even globally.   Lakshmi Kothaneth @lakshmioman