Rivlin: Fighting killer cancer disease is target all Israelis agree on

“This disease does not distinguish between one person and another and threatens the lives of young people and adults from all parts of society,” he said at the Beit Hanassi ceremony.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Updated: OCTOBER 6, 2017 00:13
President Reuven Rivlin at Israel Cancer Association’s Knock on the Door Campaign event. (photo credit: SHLOMI AMSALEM)
President Reuven Rivlin at Israel Cancer Association’s Knock on the Door Campaign event.
(photo credit: SHLOMI AMSALEM)
Israeli society needs now more than ever to mobilize in the fight against cancer, which kills more people than any other disease, President Reuven Rivlin said to open the Israel Cancer Association’s Knock on the Door Campaign and its new year of activities.
The fund-raising event will take place on October 23.
“This disease does not distinguish between one person and another and threatens the lives of young people and adults – women and men – from all parts of society,” he said at the President’s Residence ceremony on Monday night. “If we adopt a healthful lifestyle, increase public awareness, advance breakthrough scientific discoveries and support patients and their families, we will have the upper hand.”
The president and his wife, Nechama, were on hand at the ceremony that included a performance by singer Einat Saruf, who recovered from breast cancer, and a personal story on coping with cancer told by Dr. Tzofia Inbar, who had a malignancy as a teenager and is now an expert on hematology-oncology helping patients fight their disease.
Also present were Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman, ICA chairman Prof. Eliezer Robinson, ICA director-general Miri Ziv, ICA deputy chairman Leon Recanati and ICA volunteers from all over the country.
Ziv reviewed the association’s activities and its contribution to the increase in cancer survival rates and the reduction in mortality rates here.
The doorbell operation for 2017 and fund-raising activity in 2018 will be led this year by Liora Ofer, chairman of Melisron and Ofer Investments, who will chair the operation.
“This year, as every year, the launching of the Knock on the Door campaign is an exciting event,” said Rivlin.
“In the modern world, there is sometimes a sense of alienation and a feeling of disconnection among the people.
But hundreds of determined volunteers, tens of thousands of dedicated schoolchildren knock on the doors of Israeli citizens, and they open their doors, pocket and hearts and show responsibility for one another.”
The ICA is a nonprofit organization that operates thanks to public donations and receives no funding from any government ministry. The donations enable the ICA to finance activities that can save lives.
The projects are determined by professional committees, which are voluntarily joined by representatives of the best medical and research personnel throughout the country and are examined carefully on the basis of professional considerations at the national level.
The ICA has about 3,500 volunteers spread across 70 branches throughout the country who are involved in advancing the struggle against cancer on all fronts, promoting research and prevention, improving treatment and rehabilitating patients and recovering patients.
For more information regarding cancers, call the ICA’s 24-hour telemedicine line at 1-800-599-995.
To support women with breast cancer, call 1-800-36-07-07. To donate call 1-800-35-46-46.