How to Stay Ahead of Cancer

Cancer Awareness

We are all residents of urban and rapidly urbanizing India. This is what my life looks like: Wake up— Accomplish domestic chores— Get to work— Slay problems at work—- Sleep—- Begin a new day all over again! Sound familiar?

Weekends and holidays are gobbled up by social, personal and familial responsibilities. So, how and when are you supposed to update your knowledge about current developments in the world of science and health? There should be a quick and easy way to get a ‘download’ of the latest knowledge and information in a field that is not directly related to our line of work. Since we spend a lot of time at our workplaces, it would be convenient to get some information delivered to us at the office, rather than having to go out and seek it.

Stay Ahead of Cancer
This is exactly why Strand has developed the ‘Stay Ahead of Cancer’ initiative. We refer to it as SAOC, in short. The main mandate of the SAOC program is to spread awareness about cancer, and about steps that anyone can take to reduce the impact of cancer in our lives. Cancer, as we all know, can be caused by the damage done to our tissues owing to exposure to harmful substances like tobacco smoke, alcohol, arsenic, asbestos and others. Sometimes, a genetic predisposition towards cancer is evident within a family. These are all factors that work together to cause cancer in people.

The next logical question, of course, is whether there is something that we can do to manage this risk of cancer. The short answer is: ‘Yes’, there are ways to identify hereditary genetic risk for cancer in each and every person. Also, if misfortune strikes and a person goes on to develop cancer, there are genetic tests designed to support cancer therapy and identify some good treatment options for a patient.

SAOC Seminars
In order to spread this message, the SAOC initiative was launched in 2016. Scientists and doctors from Strand have visited close to 40 companies and have had interactive sessions with people from all walks of life. A basic primer on cancer and the ways and means of identifying one’s personal risk for hereditary cancer are explained very well during SAOC seminars.

We also offer FREE genetic counseling to people who are interested in understanding their risk for hereditary cancer. These sessions can be held immediately after the SAOC presentation or at a convenient time on another day.

Financial institutions, high-end property developers, software companies, government agencies, and hospitals are some of the organizations that we have reached out to. We have spoken to over 1400 people in these sessions and some of them have come back to us to get their DNA tested for any evidence of inherited cancer risk.

More significantly, 98%~ of the people we interacted with, were highly appreciative about the SAOC seminars. They claim that their awareness about cancer increased tremendously as a result of attending the SAOC seminars.

Here’s How You Can Do It
Scheduling an SAOC session in your company is the easiest thing to do. Just have the right person from your organization write to us at stayaheadofcancer@strandls.com. We will organize an SAOC seminar plus FREE genetic counselling sessions for you and your colleagues.