world cancer day Archives - Youth Cancer Europe (YCE)

In one of his first public engagements as the European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Oliver Várhelyi held a Youth Policy Dialogue with members of Youth Cancer Europe on the occasion of World Cancer Day.

During the dialogue, he acknowledged youth’s role in shaping healthcare’s future and committed to delivering on the EU Cancer Plan, ensuring cancer remains a priority despite the Commission’s broader agenda. He was attentive to the unique challenges of cancer in youth—mental health, education disruptions, lack of follow-up care, socioeconomic struggles, career delays, and fertility preservation gaps. He recognised these as critical for Europe’s future and agreed they must be part of a forward-looking health agenda. As he reaffirmed, “Young people are essential to driving real change!

The Commissioner outlined key areas for progress, including AI-driven advancements in healthcare, genetics and biomarkers for cancer detection and treatment, and the European Biotech Act to boost clinical trials, health technology assessment, and Europe’s competitiveness. He also highlighted the European Health Data Space as a major step in using big data and AI for targeted screening and prevention, ensuring early detection is more personalised and accessible.

Responding to patient advocates’ concerns on inequities in cancer care, he confirmed inequality will be a major focus, ensuring innovations benefit all populations. While other health priorities shape the agenda, cancer will not be forgotten. He committed to building on momentum, delivering more, and delivering better, keeping prevention, innovation, and equity at the heart of EU health policy.

The Commissioner has already announced he’ll meet with us again next year, and as always, we’ll be ready to hold the EU leaders accountable.

Watch the full recording of the event here: https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/world-cancer-day-2025-02-04

Ana Amăriuței, patient advocate at Youth Cancer Europe and Biomedical Science PhD student at University of Sheffield, originally from Romania, shared her own story of childhood cancer in a high-level event hosted by European Commission’s Stella Kyriakides and Acko Ankarberg Johansson, Swedish Minister of Health Care.

(Stockholm, Sweden) 1st of February 2023 – In the run up to World Cancer Day 2023 the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union co-organised a high-level conference on cancer. The conference took place under the title “Equity, excellence, and innovation – modern cancer care for all, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan – eradicating inequalities within cancer care”

Following keynote speeches from Acko Ankarberg Johansson, Swedish Minister of Health Care, EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director Europe, Dr. Douglas R Lowy, Principal Deputy Director, National Cancer Institute and Spanish Minister of Health, Carolina Darias San Sebastián, Ana Amăriuței delivered a powerful and emotional speech, addressing topics such as Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and spoke about EUCAYASNET, the first-time-ever EU funded project, coordinated and managed by young people with lived experience of cancer.

Ana called on the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission “to provide a sense of unity and security by ensuring appropriate access to medical care to every single cancer patient in Europe regardless of their gender, race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, place of birth and residency, religious or spiritual beliefs” as all stakeholders work towards eradicating inequalities in cancer care.

Speaking at the event, Ana said: “We owe these changes to our loved ones and the cancer patients who are no longer with us and for whom we were too late to make a transformation, but most of all, to all those 2.7 million Europeans who are diagnosed each year with cancer”.

In addition to presenting the latest deliverables under the EU Cancer Plan, participants at the conference discussed three main topics: prevention, early detection, and the conditions for data-driven cancer care.

From left to right in the picture: Stella Kyriakides EU Health Commissioner, Ana Amăriuței, Biomedical research PhD student and YCE patient advocate, Mia Rajalin, Vision Zero Cancer and Lung Cancer Association, Acko Ankarberg Johansson, Swedish Minister for Health Care and Carolina Darias San Sebastián, Spanish Minister of Health.

February 4th is #WorldCancerDay. Here at Youth Cancer Europe, we continue to fight harder than ever to ensure that the voices of young cancer patients and survivors are heard across the continent, empowering them to become a key part of how cancer treatment and after-care is shaped in their own territories, and ensuring that the best possible, quality treatment is accessible to all regardless of where they come from.