By Jose Kavi
New Delhi: Premi Mathew from India was among 34 recipients of the first awards that the United Arab Emirates presented to health professionals for their outstanding work.
Mathew, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Protect Your Mom (PYM) and Hair for Hope-India, received the award on January 16 from Humaid Obaid Al Qatami, chairperson of the board of directors, Dubai Health Authority at a glittering function in Dubai. More than 600 healthcare leaders of UAE attended the program.
The award aimed to showcase health professionals and companies who strive to improve the health and wellbeing of the country. The inaugural event aimed at inspiring healthcare professionals to create positive change in the community, with increased focus on improving public health, research and innovation.
Mathew received the award for distinguished women in healthcare. She shared with Matters India about her life and works, in an email interview.
Why were you awarded recently in Dubai? How did you feel about it? How do such awards help you?
It was not exactly UAE government that awarded us. It was called the health award UAE, jointly hosted by Dubai’s Department of Economic Development and Gulf Medical University- led Health Magazine.
It was great to be acknowledged. It gives the campaign a status and helps to spread it. My aim is to spread it all over India because awareness is very low there and too many women die of cancer just because of ignorance.
What is the Protect your Mom Campaign? Why and when did you start it? What has it achieved so far?
“Protect Your Mom,” or PYM, is a campaign that focuses on pushing children to pester their mothers to have regular breast self-exams and promote early detection. The campaign directs women to become more conscious of their health. My initial target was BBA students as it gives them a forum to test their marketing and PR skills. Now the main target of is children in the 7-8 age group. The change was made after I met an 8-year-old who actually took cancer seriously.
PYM was started in the UAE on May 25, 2011. It has involved more than 50,000 students from some of the best schools and colleges in UAE and India. Our aim is simple – to make every kid pester their moms to do a self-exam to check for tiny painless stones and early signs of breast cancer. Yes, breast cancer can be found on your own — something that women do not know. Early detection can save more than 400,000 lives every year.
It is the only campaign where even a 7-year-old educates elders. It is a zero-cost, zero-staffed campaign managed by volunteers connected through Facebook. It creates awareness through music, dance and art -the language of the youth.
Boys have gone bald in three separate instances (symbolic since chemo patients lose hair) while girls have donated hair to our sister campaign, Hair for Hope India. The campaign also builds leadership and organizational skills among students by assisting them to conduct awareness programs. It helps student of Business and Marketing to test their skills while saving lives. The campaign has a strong presence in India. In Kerala, we held four pink walkathons in 2011, 2012 and 2014 with more than 1,000 students participating.
What else have you achieved?
PYM is mentioned in the “67 inspiring stories,” a book presented to South African leader Nelson Mandela. The campaign was the subject of a study on “pester power” in social marketing that was conducted in association with University of Wollongong. The study results will be published in Marketing Journal, a top European magazine.
The campaign has created awareness about self-exams among millions of women through events widely covered by all the leading papers in Dubai. In 2015, students organized events in Bihar, Karnataka, Kashmir and Kerala.
PYM Brand ambassadors in various schools even organize hair donation events. Some 50 students of our English high school and 90 students of Indian School in Sharjah have donated hair. Men and children, as young as 3, have donated in UAE. So long as the hair is saved from bin our objective is served.
PYM hit headlines in Dubai in 2011 when eight boys went bald to promote the cause. Protect Your Mom page features stories of 10 cancer survivors to inspire those fighting the battle right now. Students also adopt chemo patients and directly. Cancer treatment bills are huge and beyond the capacity of ordinary people. But when a school crowd sources – even if it is 10 rupees a child– it becomes a big amount.
You have been helping cancer survivors for long? What made you to come to their help?
It is only when cancer hits your family that you realize the effect of cancer. I was planning to do my PhD when cancer hit my family. What surprised me was that although I come from a family of doctors and all my friends are either doctors or wives of doctors many did not know about self-exams, or even if they knew it, did not practice it. Such people run a high risk of breast cancer.
Although there are a lot of awareness campaigns, the message of regular self-exam is not clearly communicated. We communicate the message through dances, songs, skits, speeches and other innovative events that are more interesting. We also make kids to pester their mom to do self-exams.
Please explain a little more about Hair for Hope. What are its activities?
Hair for Hope India is a campaign to create awareness about hair donation. We have held events all over India and more than 6,000 people have donated hair and another 600 have benefited from wigs given to economically challenged chemo patients, who needed it to face society with dignity and confidence
It began with my meeting with Dylan, son of my cousin, in 2011. When I saw his long hair I really thought the hippie movement was back. But then his mother explained to me why he was growing hair. He was only six when his neighbor’s daughter who was his age donated her long hair for natural wig for the victims of hair-loss. When his mother explained how cancer led to hair-loss, he decided to do something. For him losing hair to cancer was the worst thing to happen to anyone.
I knew I had to do something. So I published his story on my page called “Protect your mom” (PYM) campaign to create awareness about breast cancer. The first donors were an Arab, a cancer survivor’s daughter, a German and many Indians. Initially, I personally supervised every hair cut and made a news story that was published to create mass awareness.
And then I started Hair for hope India. The Hair for hope India has made hair donation popular in southern India. We had over 30 events in Kerala, a few in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gujarat, Delhi and Kolkata. They are organized by clubs, ladies circle and other groups whom we contact and guide through Facebook. We have set off a similar campaign in Pakistan. In UAE too hundreds have donated hair. It goes to friends of cancer patients who send it to children’s cancer center in Lebanon.
How can students join the campaign?
Today we have kids as young as 7 going to India and even distant lands like Kenya and Russia to spread the simple message of self-exams during summer holidays. They also encourage children in those countries to take a pledge to make their moms do self-exam.
Everything about the campaign is standardized — form the pledge to the speech to the event. So anyone can host a PYM event and send us the pictures and videos to spread it. Click on volunteers for information on our site www.protectyourmom.asia. It is time we stopped breast cancer from killing women and depriving children of their mothers. I invite all of you to join my war against cancer. It is time we killed cancer before it kills us.
We also encourage students to actually adopt a chemo patient and pay their bills directly. There is something beautiful and addictive when students are rewarded by the tears of joy.
Can you tell us something about yourself, your background?
My husband, Doctor Mathew K Joseph, works with New Medical Centre, Dubai. My daughter Anjela Mathew is a computer engineer, who is married to John P John, who works with Google.
My father is C V Sunny, who retired as an engineer with Kerala’s Public Works Department. He is now 84, perhaps one of the oldest IITians alive. My grandfather T A Varghese, an Indian Civil Service officer, was the chief secretary of the Tamil Nadu government. My uncle T V Antony, an Indian Administrative Service officer, too was the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. He was a recipient of Padma Bhushan (third highest civilian award in India).
What are some of your good moments? Disappointments?
Winning the UAE health award was a great moment. I felt happy when I was chosen as one of the top 100 women achievers in India and invited by the President of India, and one in hundred by The Hundred org,( https://www.theonehundred.org/)Boston, USA.
I feel said when people make fun of our donors and men who grow hair to donate for cancer patients.
Are you a spiritual person? Do you use spirituality in your campaign?
I do believe in God. Yes. I do believe God has a plan and we have to trust in him even when everything goes wrong.