Inspire2Live is becoming a world campus. Cancer knows no boundaries. Finding better practices for prevention, diagnostics, treatment, after care and support is not limited to region or country. It is by pooling the knowledge of patient advocates and activists (scientists, doctors, nurses, educators) from all over the world, through joint actions and speaking with one voice, we strive to improve the creation and the access to better practices, better diagnostics, better treatments and after care and better support.

The search for improvement is led by patient advocates and by science. However, our slogan is that we adopt the means of science, not the ends of scientists. Our vision is informed by the scientists who directly or indirectly understand cancer as a biological and oncogenic disease: a disease rooted in sub and supra cellular processes and geared to the life histories of people.

Cancer will not disappear in the foreseeable future. Nor will the collective human effort to get cancer under control expire. It is our raison d’être to concentrate and speed up the best research, the learning and the adoption of new ways of working. We believe that science, care and education should go hand-in-hand. While each requires a different competence, they are one. Inspire2Live is most vocal as educator and activist, but is always on a par with science and care.

The problems we confront

Inspire2Live steps in where others cannot or lack the means to reach out beyond their social, professional or personal boundaries: at the level of community, science, politics and governance. By reaching out beyond boundaries we mean that we do wish to move beyond existing procedures, to search for, find and initiate new ones. Of course, we are poised for the products of our efforts to find their way to people who will benefit.

Consequently the problems we confront are mostly problems of cooperation and coordination. We address these problems by connecting individuals and groups, building coalitions, act as middle-man, speak as one voice for many, educate, set up meetings, lobby, inspire, organise exchanges between patient advocates, scientists, caretakers, technicians et cetera. Our self-defining event is the Annual Congress on the premises of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam.

To be able to function as a global problem solver that excels in cooperation and coordination across borders, it is crucial to avoid partisan involvement in any national or international conflict. It would undermine our mission to empower patients and improve control over cancer.

Instead of inventing our own list of principles, we adopt in full the first four fundamental principles of the International Red Cross:

• humanity
• impartiality
• neutrality
• independence

Let us spell out the humanity principle in full:

[…] the principle of humanity means that [human] suffering is being recognized, and, in turn, the need is felt to help prevent, alleviate, protect and ensure the respect of those suffering.

Jan Gerrit Schuurman
Patient Advocate Inspire2Live