Host a Screening!
Short Film 36 of 50 in the LIFE Before Death documentary series about the global crisis in untreated pain and the dramatic life changing affect palliative care services can deliver to patients and their families around the world.
In “Poetry in Motion” we hear the personal story of Bernard Ng, a former police officer turned poet when his cancer patient pain became so debilitating he considered suicide.
Bernard shares the story of how his life was resurrected through pain management, palliative care and hospice.
“I think they have done wonders for me. From a person who is very suicidal, today I look forward to living — so there is a dramatic change. I once gave up living. I once told my wife, and myself ‘I don’t have quality of life — what is the use of living?’ But today I see it the other way — I want to go on living. With medication and the doctor’s help — I’m OK.”
Featuring: Bernard (Singapore).
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If you’ve missed previous episodes, catch up on the LIFE Before Death website…
HOST A SCREENING!
The LIFE Before Death feature film was premiered on 1 February 2012 in Singapore. Pallium India will be screening the film on February 3 in Trivandrum.
Why not organise a screening in your community? GET MORE INFORMATION HERE…
Supporters handing out “syringe” pens to passers-by at the financial district of Raffles Place in Singapore on February 1, 2012 ahead of the World Cancer Day. GETTY IMAGES
You can’t have missed the “Stop the Pain” banner at the top of the site, which takes you to our special Stop the Pain donation page.
To coincide with the premiere of the LIFE Before Death feature film and World Cancer Day, the Lien foundation organised a wonderful initiative in Singapore. 70 volunteers took to the streets of the City to distribute more than 20,000 syringe-shaped pens and information about the crisis in untreated pain. This from the Gabriel at Lien:
Stop the Pain Volunteer in Singapore
On 1 Feb, we have volunteers in Singapore to distribute pens with an insert, which says:
“Go to palliumindia.org and find out how just US$20 can provide a month’s pain relief to patients at the remarkable Pallium India – an organisation that’s changing the way people view palliative care.”
This will also be provided on the media releases.”
20,000+ syringe-pens distributed!
Why not donate?
Remember, just US$20 = one month of pain relief.
We’ve also been given the wonderful news that in addition to the donations from supporters in Singapore, the Lien Foundation has pledged US$100,000 to Pallium India. Half of the funds will go to buying pain relief medicine for the poor and the other half to train doctors and nurses in pain treatment.
Thank you Lien Foundation, Volunteers and Donors!
Watch the interview with Assoc Prof Cynthia Goh and Dr Rajagopal on Channel News Asia’s AMLive:
News report in TODAY: The need for better pain management
Where is Singapore ?
Host a Screening
The World Premiere of the LIFE Before Death feature film took place yesterday in Singapore.
It was well attended by media and featuring stars of the film, including Pallium India’s Dr Rajagopal.
The event was a terrific launch for the upcoming screenings taking place in 160+ locations in 40+ countries over the coming month.
Watch an interview about the film with Mike Hill, Assoc Prof Cynthia Goh and Dr Rajagopal on Channel News Asia’s AMLive:
Don’t forget! Pallium India is screening the film at the Museum Hall, in the heart of Trivandrum, on Friday, February 3, 2012.
Why not host a screening in your area? Find out how here…
Where is Singapore ?
G. Krishnappa at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIS)
A young man with non-Hodgkin lymphoma went from being unable to get up and go to the toilet, to taking a “sprightly” walk. Others patients report similar changes when taking this treatment.
The miracle cure? Oral morphine.
This essential medicine is inexpensive and has relatively few side effects. Yet for over a million people in India who need it, it’s out of reach.
A package of articles in The Hindu have taken on the subject in detail, showing that morphine, despite the misconceptions and myths surrounding it, is a highly effective pain reliever for those suffering from serious illness such as cancer and AIDS.
Outdated notions and continued bureaucratic holdups have stood in the way of its dissemination through most of India.
Of course, we at Pallium India are fully aware of this, and our commitment is to bring appropriate and complete palliative care to all who need it.
A powerful palliative under lock and key
Journalist Mohit M. Rao investigates the issue in an article headlined “A Powerful Palliative Under Lock and Key.” In it, Rao shows that partly because of their usage for illicit purposes, there is unnecessary fear in both patients and doctors of opioids.
The article quotes Dr. Nagesh Simha, Medical Director of Karunashraya and chairperson of Bangalore Hospice Trust, who says some doctors are ill-informed about the effects of morphine for pain relief.
“Doctors are hesitant to prescribe oral morphine to even those in severe pain as they are misinformed of the side-effects…”.
And there is an ever-present, often unrealistic fear of addiction.
Please read the entire series of articles at The Hindu:
Throw out opium, which the Creator himself seems to prescribe, for we often see the scarlet poppy growing in the cornfields, as if it were foreseen that wherever there is hunger to be fed there must also be a pain to be soothed; throw out a few specifics which our art did not discover, and it is hardly needed to apply; throw out wine, which is a food, and the vapors which produce the miracle of anaesthesia, and I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica [medical drugs], as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind,—and all the worse for the fishes. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, ‘Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science’, Address to Massachusetts Medical Society (30 May 1860).
Morphine is in the “Essential Medicine list” of the World Health Organization. And, it’s importance is even understood in the art world, see this design by Dan Golden:
Each one of us is a potential patient; it is very likely that we shall need it some time in our lives.
Is it not time we stood up and asked our hospitals,
“Does your pharmacy have oral morphine? If not, what kind of a hospital are you running, without even essential medicines?”
