The name Salomé Meyer is synonymous with Cancer Alliance. We catch up with this powerhouse activist and learn how it all started for her.
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Salomé Meyer (64) lives in Cape Town, Western Cape with her life partner, Faan.
It was due to losing her breast friend to breast cancer that stirred up an intense drive to make a change in the cancer community. “She left behind a two-and-a-half-year-old child at the young age of 37. I thought, there has to be something I can do to improve cancer care services in SA,” Salomé says.
Twenty-nine years later, Salomé is the director of Cancer Alliance, a collective group of cancer control non-profit organisations and cancer advocates, and has been instrumental and the driving force for equitable access to treatment in cancer care.
Her passion for change allows her to fulfil this full-time volunteer job.
Early career
Salomé trained as a medical social worker and worked in government in community development for 15 years. In 1996, she left government services; this is when she lost her best friend.
She then joined the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) as an advisory consultant to develop a bigger footprint and helping hand in previously disadvantaged areas. This paved the way for her to first become a chairperson of CANSA Western Cape and then a board member of CANSA until 2006. In this time, she assisted setting up CANSA’s advocacy division, advocating for the establishment of the National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP) and improving the South African National Cancer Registry (NCR).
CANSA and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) then approached Salomé to establish The Cancer Research Initiative of South Africa (CARISA), which she did. Here, CARISA continued with the advocacy of the Cancer Regulation and NCCP and launched the Cervical Cancer Research Agenda. Unfortunately, Salomé was let go 18 months later due to her not having a PhD and five years later, CARISA closed down.
The birth of Cancer Alliance
In 2011, the Voice of Cancer Survivor Forum was held where 25 cancer organisations expressed their needs regarding quality of care, attitudes, practices, policies of cancer control, and services in SA to government. Government heard them out and challenged them to form one body that represents all the cancer civil society groups and so Cancer Alliance was formed as the umbrella body. Salomé became a member as an independent cancer advocate.
In 2014, Cancer Alliance joined the Fix The Patent Law campaign. “It’s here that I was exposed to the other side of advocacy which is activism. I was an advisor, an advocate, and now
I’m an activist. This was due to Treatment Action Campaign introducing me to advocacy from a human rights perspective, which is a completely different angle than most cancer organisations take. Globally, we are so influenced by the fact that we take money from pharma/industry that we won’t challenge them. But to change the healthcare system, we have to approach government and pharma in a different way. This is when the focus of Cancer Alliance changed; our focus is equitable, affordable, timely access to treatment for all, from a human rights perspective. We realised quiet diplomacy isn’t going to get us anywhere, but responsible activism will,” Salomé explains.
Access to Medicine Programme
In 2017, the Open Society Foundation then granted Cancer Alliance funds for five years. This allowed them to start the Access to Medicine Programme with focus on lenalidomide, bendamustine, trastuzumab as well as other medicines and the first evidence-based report was released in 2018.
“We, at Cancer Alliance, build our advocacy on evidence and we had to work hard. I remember in the beginning a male clinician told us that we are just a bunch of emotional women. So, we had to work hard to get the confidence of the clinical community to value us in that when we publish a report, it’s all backed up by evidence. And, no we aren’t emotional,” Salomé says.
“How times have changed in a few years, as we now have the clinical community coming to us requesting letters of support for research that they want to do,” Salomé adds. “This work done by Cancer Alliance, all of the members collectively, is for the broader community; it’s chipping away at the system and slowly changing it. This goes back to the commitment I made in 1996.”
Living a meaningful life
On a personal level, Salomé says this chosen career path allows her to live her life meaningfully. She says, “It fulfils me in so many ways. It was my husband, Faan, who told me when I left government services that I needed to remain active and relevant. His support over the years has been a great gift; he allows me to do what I love while living a simple life on pension.”
When asked what Cancer Alliance is most proud of achieving, Salomé responds, “The fact that we have published a number of very dedicated reports, a major body of work, from our first one that focused on Patents, our Access to Medicine reports, the Cost of Cancer report, and the last one on a Legal Framework for Cancer. We received a huge compliment the other day when a clinician told us that she is using one of our reports. To hear that we are being quoted and referenced is a major compliment and confirms we are relevant in what we do.”
Current focus
She adds the focus of Cancer Alliance now is to establish a National Cancer Institute where public and private sectors are both involved, and a standard of guidelines is formed for all cancers.
“Currently we only have a breast, cervical, and lung cancer policy. This will also require us looking at healthcare professionals’ needs to provide the services for cancer patients, as well as palliative care, research, and assessing the legal gaps. So, in the same way that government challenged us to speak as one umbrella organisation, we challenge them to establish a cancer body (National Cancer Institute) that can negotiate cancer care within NHI. We have the support of broader civil society, academic and research institutes, and professional societies. It’s now a matter of getting there in the form of collective decision-making of all stakeholders.”
Many will be happy to know that Salomé has no intention to retire anytime soon. We look forward to celebrate many more achievements of Cancer Alliance.
Rapid fire questions
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the SA cancer community?
We are dealing with a unique and challenging disease, that is our strength. Our weakness is that we haven’t managed to bring it all together as one voice, and that is another focus of Cancer Alliance: the One Voice campaign – to bring everyone together, including the clinical units, to speak as one voice.
What does advocacy mean to you?
It’s basic human rights, allowing for justice and equity.
What is your ultimate goal on a personal level?
To equip cancer advocates in communities to be that voice.
MEET OUR EDITOR
Laurelle Williams is the editor at Word for Word Media. She graduated from AFDA with a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Live Performance. She has a love for storytelling and sharing emotions through the power of words.
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