Poland
Survivor, President & CEO of the “Na Ratunek Dzieciom z Chorobą Nowotworową” Foundation

1. Please introduce yourself to the PanCare membership and tell us a little about yourself. I am childhood cancer survivor, and CEO of one of the biggest Polish NGO in pediatric oncology.I have over 14 years of professional experience. I worked for multinational enterprises in the CEE region, and dozens of SMEs. I formulated long-term CSR, sustainability & communication visions, strategies and operational principles. I am very good at building and strengthening Partnerships, managing relations with stakeholders, both public and business.Amon others, I was Head of International Relations Bureau & Strategic Advisory Manager at Polish Development Bank, formulating Bank’s international business relations & Public Affairs strategic goals, business relations with UE, Africa, and cooperating with international financial institutions such as: EBI, EBRD, IMF, World Bank.

   I feel jubilant at life when I can roll out the programs and initiate projects to work on worthy causes.

   I have a PhD in “CSR implementation in the European Union”. Great intellectual fulfillment but not the end of the journey. I completed Harvard Business School in Sustainable Strategies, and Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Sustainable Finance. I have the European Certificate of Political Science form Strasbourg University.

   I am a mother of 5 years old Jan. Motherhood is one of the greatest miracles I have ever experienced in my life. l am also a bookworm, reading at least few books per month. During my cancer I started to write poetical novels. Now, I am writing a fairy tale for my son.

2. Can you tell us why you think it is important to have childhood cancer survivors on the board?
   I believe in a power of diversity, of looking at the challenges from different angels, and this is what the PanCare is about – bringing different perspectives of survivors, their families, medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, and other experts to one table, and unify them to achieve common goals.Survivors are one of the important stakeholders in the process of elaborating best possible solution for sociopsychological care, building social network, but also being reliable communication partner, strengthening recognition and awareness.
3. Are you involved in any of the PanCare projects or are you involved in any childhood cancer survivorship work in your own country? Can you tell us a little about this?Survivorship is one of the main pillars of our new strategy in which our Foundation Saving Kids With Cancer is going to invest in forthcoming years. We want to create a center of excellence when it comes to survivorship – cancer and treatment related long effects and quality of life of survivors.We are going to:* support database creation on nationwide level, gathering data on survivors;

   * ensure adequate medical, and sociopsychological support for survivors and their families through established all Polish medical network, accessible in every corner of Poland;

   * cooperate with medical centers that have already engaged in any kind of care related to survivors, and possibly integrate those efforts with one all Polish cooperation panel;

   * exchange knowledge and good practices on European and international level;

   We have just started a pilot project in between two medical centers (Wroclaw, Bialystok), in order to develop systematic guidelines for the national health system on how to respond from a medical and psychological perspective to survivors’ needs. As a result, we will present conclusions and recommendations for the Polish government. I believe it will be a good starting point to advocacy which we want to complete by information, and all Polish educational campaigns.

4. What do you hope to help the board achieve during the 3 years you will be a board member?
   I think PanCare has a great potential of strengthening its European presence by: (1) building strong institutional relationships, and advocacy at the EC, (2) elaborating European continentwide information, and education campaigns as a knowledge sharing and awareness raising projects, ergo gaining more visibility and strengthening its reliability as a survivorship competence center of excellence, (3) further development of its network, unifying survivors across European countries among what PanCare is doing, and becoming more co-operational platform for them, (4) and last but not least building strong strategic partnership programe with business which would ensure more sustainable financial background for all those ambitious projects of PanCare.I believe, I can contribute to at least some of those areas.
5. Is there anything else we should know about you or is there anything else you want to share?

Is there anything more you would like to ask me?