WHO Director-General, Margareth Chan, awarded HRH Princess Lalla Salma the Organization's medal in recognition of her action and commitment to fighting cancer in Morocco and beyond.
HRH Princess Lalla Salma, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Promotion of Cancer Prevention and Care, has been working hard to make the fight against cancer a public health priority around the world.
The WHO gold medal, awarded at the end of a term of a WHO Director-General, was awarded by Dr Margareth Chan to four other personalities for their significant role in the field of health.
These are Princess Mary of Denmark, President of Uruguay, Tabaré Vazquez, former Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and President of the Nippon Foundation (Leprosy Elimination), Yohei Sasakawa.
The ceremony was attended by Dr Mahmoud Fikri, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), members of the Board of Directors, the Scientific Council and the General Directorate of the Lalla Salma Foundation.
Speaking on this occasion, Chan said that she “has the immense pleasure and honour of handing the WHO gold medal to HRH Princess Lalla Salma in recognition of her sincere efforts, dedication and outstanding initiatives in the battle against cancer, adding that this ceremony “also pays tribute to the Lalla Salma Foundation for Cancer Prevention and Treatment, which has been established under the patronage and thanks to the generous support of HM King Mohammed VI”.
Chan noted in a message read on her behalf by Dr Mahmoud Fikri that the Lalla Salma Foundation is a concrete symbol of the role that civil society can play in health, stressing that the Foundation provides a practical example of engagement and mobilization of resources at the local community level.
In this respect, she recalled that since 2005, HRH Princess Lalla Salma has been working with the Foundation for Cancer Prevention and Treatment to change the traditional image associated with this disease by transforming the options available to enable quality cancer care.
