Stories from a cancer centre - Final

The Cooking Masterclass went well despite hiccups here and there.

Chef Janice Wong is a real dessert goddess!! She could make a simple dessert turns to be a fine-dining-kind of dessert.

One thing I learned from this event was the importance of Plan B. Yes, emergency plan. Everything can go wrong on the day of event itself so we better make sure we have a Plan B for it.

Contacts are also important. Make sure you are good to everybody so they also will be happy to help when you need them. Be nice to everybody in your team, because a happy team will do a much better work. Journalists, treat them as humans, not merely your 'PR tools'. In my opinion, PR practitioner should be humble but fast in making the right decision.

I also got to know that PR/marketing for healthcare industry is different from any other industry. We can't be too aggressive in healthcare because it doesn't serve the purpose of healthcare - to help people in need. We would rather do it by getting them aware about cancer, encourage them to get screened, and help them to get the best possible treatment.

A day after the Cooking Masterclass, 2 Oct 2010, we also have another event in partnership with The Pink Paddlers as part of October 2010 breast cancer awareness. We screened the video of Pink Paddlers at the giant screen, ION orchard.

It’s the FIRST EVER DOCUMENTARY TO SHOW OUTDOORS AT ION!

You can see the Pink Paddlers 2010 trailer here.

So I've finished my internship. I am glad that I have learned a lot. I am so grateful that Jade, my mentor, still update me things I've been involved even after I came back to the operation department of PCC. I guess I am special now! I not only face patients everyday but also get to know the 'back stage' part of this organization.

I am happy to be in Parkway Cancer Centre whether I am in operation or marketing side. Do you know what they say about good karma? I am accumulating good karma by dedicating myself to my patients! :D
I am lucky to be here, in PCC. It feels great when you know you have done something good for other people :)

Life is short, do something good and be happy!


Cheers
Lena

Stories from a cancer centre - 3

So tomorrow is my last day of internship..

I learned a lot for the past 4 weeks but feel it is not enough. I want more! haha

Tomorrow we will have a big event. Featured in Straits Times for 2 days, I am very happy to get so much coverage from the national newspaper!

Awake Your Appetite! Cooking Masterclass featured in ST Wed's picks and ST Thurs' picks.




















Thanks to Chef Janice Wong (2am: dessertbar) and Chef Diego Martinelli (The Lighthouse at The Fullerton Hotel)! :)
They will whip up special dishes for our participants who are cancer patients and caregivers. Delicious + healthy dishes for cancer patients = new reason to enjoy meals and be happy!

Today the contributing chefs for the recipe book are interviewed. They also have photo shot session. They are all very nice chefs! We have fun during the photo shot. I never know doing business can be fun :D

I have more work to do this week since the Cooking Masterclass is tomorrow only and the launch for the recipe book is just in 1 month time.

Some of the works for Cooking Masterclass are: sending media invite for, preparing media kit, liaise with Chef Janice and Chef Diego, check the venue for event, write emcee script (which I enjoy the least!), preparing our CanHope banner to be put at the venue, etc... it's a long list, really..

Whereas for the recipe book, I am in charge of collecting quotes from our doctors, being middle man for the chefs and our senior dietitian for each recipe, and liaise with sponsors.

We still looking for more sponsorship as we want to have more promotional actions, which will boost up the awareness, which will raise the sales of the book, which at the end will be donated to Singapore Cancer Society, which I believe will help more cancer patients in Singapore. Very complicated... Money is always difficult to get...

That's all the summary of my week. Will post another post this weekend after the event and after I am officially out from this great place..

It's getting late and I'm getting mellow.. I feel the sadness just thinking that I must come back to my usual work in the clinic..

Thanks for my 'lao ban' ('boss' in Mandarin) L, the 4J and 2S :)


Cheers
Lena

Stories from a cancer centre - 2

I'm going to the second week of my internship with Parkway Cancer Centre. And everything is just more exciting!

We are doing a project to publish a cookbook for cancer patients, the first in Asia!

The Awakening of Appetite project is a big project for PCC. All the profit from this project will be donated to Singapore Cancer Society.

An article about this project is featured inside Mind Your Body, Straits Times 16 September 2010.

Here is the link:

Flavorful meals for cancer patients (by Geraldine Ling). Thanks Geraldine! :)

Awakening of Appetite. This cookbook is a colaboration of the 8 top renowned chefs in Singapore. The book will be launch in November 2010.

Apart from this BIG project of cookbook, I also handled some smaller events during the weekdays. There was a free consultation with one of our oncologist in The American Club for example.


And deep inside my heart I know next week will be more excited ;)




Cheers
Lena

Stories from a cancer centre - 1

CANCER.

What crosses in your mind when you hear this word?

Death sentence? No hope?

Well, I hope I can change your perspective about this dreaded C word like how Parkway Cancer Centre (PCC) has done to me, to its patients and patients' family members. I am a better person now, I value my time than I ever before, I am now closer to my family, thanks to PCC :)

Parkway Cancer Centre is a private cancer centre in Singapore with a highly skilled, multi-disciplinary team comprising consultant medical specialists, nurses, counsellors and other para-medical professionals to meet the specific needs of cancer patients

I work full time in this organization for almost a year. I learned a lot of things and will be learning more things as I am attached to its Marketing Department for my internship.

Parkway Cancer Centre, I see it as a place full of tears, fears but also hopes. I saw tons of patients with, of course, cancer. I saw their fears, their tears. But I also saw many of them who beat their cancer and now is living their life to the fullest. We compile their stories in our healthNEWS.

As an intern in PCC Marketing Department, one of my job is to contribute to the healthNEWS. The work includes choosing a patient's story (for the cover page, main story), asking the doctor's permission, asking patient's permission, setting a date for interview, writing down the stories, translating it into other languages (mostly in Chinese or Bahasa), get some articles to be written inside the healthNEWS, making a nice layout (include editing those photographs!), send it to the printing company, liaising with printing co to make sure they are doing what we want, setting deadline, putting it inside our website, and so on.. (I only started my internship earlier this week, I have not done all the work I've listed down above but I know the works are waiting for me).

If you want to take a look at one of our healthNEWS, you are welcomed to see our August 2010 healthNEWS, in PCC's website!

Besides doing the healthNEWS, I also liaise with media in our market's countries, assist in the upcoming events, update our website, and many more works..

But I guess I should talk about how exciting those works are in the next post or this post will be a long, boring post.

Lastly, if your loved one has cancer and is battling with it, you'll find our CanHope forum is very useful. As I always believe, you are never alone in this journey of life :)


Cheers
Lena