[MUSIC]
MODERATOR: We want to get to a global health question, because
this is also an issue that you focus on at CGI a bunch.
The next question comes from a man named Chris who lives in
Australia, and he has a very compelling personal story
he wanted to share.
AUDIENCE: My name is Chris [INAUDIBLE].
I'm a 24 year old Australian from Canberra, who has
the awful and much too popular disease, cancer.
I was only 19 when I was rushed to hospital four weeks
before with stomach pains.
Little did I know, that day, that I had leukemia
running through my blood.
The doctors told me I needed an urgent operation to cut me
open, and to say goodbye to my family, as he only gave me
a 50% chance to survive.
I'm still here, but due to complications and infections,
within a month, both my legs, my left hand, and my left
fingers were amputated.
Many people might find the thought of living after
something like this too hard, but I'm just lucky to be alive.
MODERATOR: Now, Chris's video is a bit long, so we cut that,
and said what is your question?
What can be done to improve survival rates of young
people with cancer?
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: First of all, did this happen
to him when he was in Australia, or somewhere else?
MODERATOR: It happened in Australia, I believe.
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: The first thing that can be done is
better early detection, and better training of medical
personnel throughout a country in how to handle
various cancers.
The childhood leukemia survival rate has gone through the
roof in the last 30 years.
It's one of the most rewarding and encouraging things
that's happened in all the battles against cancer.
we find that this sort of a problem that he has still
happens every single day in developing countries--
in poorer countries.
One of the things that we did over the last year to change
CGI is to have networks called action networks on subjects
that a lot of our members were interested in who wanted to
stay active all year long, wanted to keep looking for
answers, and wanted to keep looking for partners.
One of them is on girls' and women's empowerment,
and one is on cancer in developing countries.
People don't think about it very much, but there's an
enormous amount of cancer in poor countries.
It's just that you have AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and
waterborne diseases slapping you in the face every day--
MODERATOR: I think 70% of all kids are cases that are
in developing countries.
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: Yes.
We know what we have to do.
We have to make sure that the medical personnel that are
there are trained, and where we can't cover a whole country,
you've got to at least get some aggressive preliminary
diagnosis capacity out there in the more rural areas, so that
you can move people to centers of care in a timely fashion.
You can avoid the worst consequences of cancer.
MODERATOR: Right.
