If I had to rewrite my story, I would do it by including overcoming Breast Cancer. When I was diagnosed for the second time, I received a phone call from a friend who wanted news after my second surgery. I told her that I was fine, because this time I had found it early and that I would be fine with the treatment. I just had to thank God. That’s when she told me about a 30-year-old woman who, newly diagnosed with breast cancer, would have to wait 6 months to have her surgery. At the time, I thought: my God, this is not possible. It is not fair that I can be treated twice and be cured and this girl has to wait. I have to do something!
Immediately the idea came to create an NGO that, on the one hand, would raise funds from many donors, and on the other, would partner with private and philanthropic hospitals to treat these women and reduce the time between diagnosis and starting treatment. Thus, Protea Institute was born.
Having studied the subject, I discovered that the situation regarding this disease in Brazil is really worrying. Our mortality rate is almost three times higher than in the US and Europe. This is why we must mobilise society to reverse this situation.
Our main goal is to reduce this mortality rate so that survival reaches 90-95% in Brazil. To this end, we will partner with private and philanthropic hospitals to increase the number of women treated and decrease the time between diagnosis and starting treatment. I convened the Advisory Board in November 2017 and we started structuring Protea in February 2018. In June, it was officially born and in November we started to provide services to patients in partnership with the Santa Marcelina Hospital.