How Your Gift will Bring Life, Sight and Hope
Your gift will help us continue the positive momentum of our fifth One Retinoblastoma World 2020 conference, held in October 2020. The event was to be hosted in Ottawa, Canada, but due to COVID-19, it became a virtual program. 270 medical professionals, researchers, retinoblastoma survivors, parents and other family members participated from 38 countries on 6 continents, highlighting the vital need to ensure our 2021 event is accessible to all around the world.
Your donation will support the One Rb World 2021 virtual program. All elements of the program will be streamed live and interactive, and the main program will be recorded for later access by parents, survivors and medical professionals to support continued learning, development and advancing care.
$50 will help us bring key cancer knowledge, understanding, support and collaboration for best care to one more family, survivor, or medical professional. Please help us make access a reality for all. Thank you so much!
Dr. Jesse Berry answers an audience question during the Genetics session of One Rb World 2020, while fellow panelists listen.
Please Help Spread the Word
Please share our campaign with your family and friends, and ask them to donate. You can create your own personalized fundraising page to support our campaign by selecting the JOIN THIS EVENT buttion on the donation page.
Please tell your family and friends why supporting WE C Hope is important to you. For example:
- If you have attended a One Rb World event, please tell others of your experience so they understand why their donation is so valuable.
- If you have not attended One Rb World but have wanted to, please tell your family and friends about this so they understand how their donation will help bring access to someone they know.
Some Thoughts from One Rb World Participants
It was great to connect and hear from retinoblastoma survivors and experts around the world. We are so lucky to be able to access that much information without having to leave our homes.
I found Dr. David Freyer’s advice on non-medical aspects of RB, such as financial considerations, and his discussion of ‘The Golden Triangle’ of survivorship to be important. Those life lessons are relevant for survivors of RB, and those without the challenges of cancer, in light of the global pandemic.
I enjoyed hearing Natalia Watson speak as an adult survivor of retinoblastoma. She recalled being bullied in grade school. Her parents, along with her teacher, arranged for a vision awareness group to do a presentation in her classroom. The children were allowed to ask her questions about her eye. After that, she was no longer teased. Monika Koenig from Germany spoke about the right time to discuss Rb with your children. Monica said, ‘Children ask questions at the time they can take the answers.’ I also found it helpful hearing Dr. David Freyer discuss transition from Pediatric hospital survivorship care to adult-focused providers. Conversations with your children can start around age 13 – 15 and the transition to adult survivorship clinic can occur at age 21.
This conference unites patients and doctors in the fight for a better way and better therapies for this disease. The unity between patient directed needs and doctor directed solutions is unprecedented.
As a survivor, the genetics session was not only informative but enlightening. It was good to hear from experts in the field, and personal testimonials and experiences.
We are so grateful to be part of an international platform where we can learn and share with experts and families from around the world. Both days of the conference captured topics vital to raising awareness, treatments and what it means to be a cancer survivor.
Hear from parents, survivors and professionals who attended One Rb World 2017 in Washington D.C.
More about One Retinoblastoma World
One Retinoblastoma World is a global network with the bold idea that all children with retinoblastoma and survivors can have equal opportunity to access optimal care. When diagnosed early and treated effectively, childhood eye cancer is curable. No child should die, or suffer avoidable blindness because of it.
Many challenges impede scientific research needed to develop evidence based care, but One Rb World is breaking down those obstacles.
The One Rb World Conference gathers together eye, cancer and other specialists, researchers, parents, diagnosed children, siblings and survivors from around the world to pursue the best possible retinoblastoma care for all children and throughout life. Collaborative research, clinical care and family support benefitting the majority of children and survivors can only be developed through inclusive meetings with a real-world focus.
One Rb World usually precedes the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) World congress, which takes place in a different global city each year. The SIOP Congress is the world’s largest annual paediatric oncology meeting, gathering thousands of medical professionals and parent/survivor advocates from across the world to share and build knowledge for children with cancer and survivors.
This is a perfect opportunity for our global retinoblastoma community to focus on the many thousands of children whose lives and sight we strive to save, and survivors who continue to live with effects of eye cancer, its treatment and cancer risks. Both in resource rich, and resource limited settings.
In 2020, due to the pandemic, World Eye Cancer Hope and our local Canadian co-hosts, quickly reorganized One Rb World into a virtual event. We were motivated by the success of our 2017 live stream, which expanded access to many professionals, parents, and survivors who could not travel to Washington D.C. Thanks to this livestream, we were also able to make the sessions accessible online after the event.
You can view the full playlist from One Rb World 2020 below.
The livestreaming element of our 2017 conference, and novel structure of our 2020 virtual program enabled unprecedented global collaboration and networking. Everyone affected by retinoblastoma and all involved in patient care and research should be able to engage in this vital conversation, and access sessions later.
You can help us make this a reality in 2021!
One Rb World 2020 united children affected by retinoblastoma from around the world. In sessions led by Certified Child Life Specialist, Morgan Livingstone, a range of fun activities helped the children explore big feelings and develop healthy ways of coping.
