HRH Princess Dina Mired
In her capacity as Director, she founded and developed the “Fundraising and Development” Department of the Foundation making it now one of the best fundraising institutions in Jordan. Princess Dina also has restructured and expanded KHCF’s Health Care Program for cancer coverage. As one of the leading figures advocating early detection and screening of breast cancer for women in Jordan, Princess Dina is the Honorary Chairperson of the Jordan Breast Cancer Program. She is also the Honorary Chairperson for the Jordan Palliative Care Society.
Princess Dina is an Honorary Co-President of Harvard University Global Task Force for Expanded Access to Cancer Control and Care in the Developing World. She is on the Presidential Advisory Panel of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and is an Ambassador of the UICC World Cancer Declaration Ambassadors Program. Princess Dina is a LIVESTRONG Global Envoy for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and an Honorary Member of the Mediterranean Task Force for Cancer Control in Italy.
What is your professional background?
I became the Director General of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) in 2003. My background in finance and my Masters degree in International Banking and Financial Services from Reading University enabled me to create and develop the fundraising and development side of the Foundation. Cancer treatment is exorbitant and requires such highly-specialized equipment and specifically trained personnel. This is why fundraising is such an essential part of combating cancer. I am proud to say that KHCF has now succeeded in enlisting every segment of society in the fight against cancer and is the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against cancer in Jordan.
What has motivated you to become an Ambassador?
As a mother of a cancer survivor, I know too well the anxiety, the worry and the fear that families face when battling cancer. I was fortunate enough to seek treatment for my son’s leukemia at one of the best cancer centers in the world. But when my son finally finished his treatment and we slowly recovered from our ordeal, I realized the stark reality that he made it only because he had that opportunity. Thousands of other mothers, who loved their children just as much, do not have this chance.
This is part of what drew me to the UICC World Cancer Declaration Ambassadors Program – the need to emphasize to world leaders this harsh inequity and disparity that exists with cancer treatment between the developed and the developing world. In the coming years, the developing world will carry 70% of the cancer burden and yet receive only 5% of the global resources for cancer. This year alone, 7 million people will die as a result of cancer - 5 million of them will be in the developing world. These numbers are entirely unacceptable. The UICC is making great strides in uniting the global efforts to combat cancer, and I am confident that together we can make a positive change and a real difference in our future.
What do you hope the Program will achieve?
There is no doubt that the World Cancer Declaration is our greatest opportunity to bring NCD’s to the top of the Global Health Agenda at the UN Summit in September and I am optimistic that this Program will finally move the discussions on cancer outside of the cancer community to center stage on the global agenda.
We cannot change the cancer of our future without committing to it in our present. It is time to press our governments and policy-makers for a commitment to reduce the cancer burden. I believe that we each have a responsibility to this end; whether as individuals, corporations, or organizations. Let us each make a commitment within our community to raise awareness, to push for necessary control measures and to combat this disease in whatever capacity we can. I am committed to making a real difference in the cancer burden, both in my country and in my region.
