The path to patient empowerment and patient advocacy in Egypt is paved by actions of the heart and the power of emotions. This is something that you can only find in Egypt, the land of mysteries that has existed since before time itself.

We Want Life was created to give patients a voice. It was a very simple concept which we had been trying to get off the ground since 2016. But it certainly wasn’t simple to start a new movement in a land of 100 million people such as Egypt. For more than 5 years, we worked on 3 different plans, doing our best to implement them and measure the outcomes but it was difficult to make the first steps.

The rational thing to do at that point would have been to give up. The logic and every single maths calculation led us to the sad conclusion that our dream wasn’t doable. As Egyptians, however, our hearts have a strong loud voice, which is very persistent, and it kept telling us to keep going, even if we didn’t have any resources and even if the few people who supported us were starting to lose hope and give up on us.

We knew that we couldn’t say no to our hearts and, by the beginning of 2022, things started to change.

Joining forces with Inspire2Live gave us the opportunity to inform Egyptian healthcare stakeholders about our work during the 60th annual conference of the National Cancer Institute in Cairo. It also enabled us to achieve the most magnificent milestone ever, namely uniting most of the Egyptian NGOs and convincing them to work together.

It is said that the rain always starts with one drop – and our hearts are telling us that this is only the first drop. Since joining forces with Inspire2live, We Want Life is now hoping that the rain of collaboration will bring more patient rights, higher cure rates, increased quality of life and an altogether brighter future.

Let your hearts lead you!

Esraa L-Sayed
Patient Advocate Inspire2Live

‘When your heart leads you, you will never lose the way’ is an Egypt proverb