The University of Santo Tomas and the UST Hospital marked their support for World Cancer Day by lighting its iconic campus landmarks in blue and orange, the awareness day’s official colors, from February 1 to 4, 2023.
The Main Building and the Arch of the Centuries shined blue and orange where Thomasians were encouraged to take photos of the structures and post it on their respective social media accounts using the hashtag #USTWorldCancerDay.
Aside from lighting the campus, an episode of the UST Tiger TV’s health and wellness talk show, “Lifeline”, did a special episode on Cancer Awareness that featured Dr. Julie Ann Tapispisan, an oncologist from the UST Hospital; Prof. Pia Marie Albano, Ph.D., a science researcher whose research interests include biomarkers of cancer and cancer genomics; and Asst. Prof. Enrico Yambao, a cancer survivor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Physics. The episode was streamed live via the official UST Facebook page and the UST Tiger TV page.
On February 4 the Santísimo Rosario Parish (UST Chapel) also held a Eucharistic Celebration for the intention of cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their families. Likewise the UST Hospital held a Cancer Screening and Prevention Lay Forum via Zoom.
For 2022-2024, the World Cancer Day theme is: ‘Close the Care Gap’. According to its website, the first year of the campaign tackled understanding and recognizing the inequities in cancer care across the globe, while this current year is about celebrating progress in its many forms that enable more people to seek and receive the care they need and deserve.
World Cancer Day is an international day marked every February 4 to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. The initiative is led by the Union for International Cancer Control to support the goals of the World Cancer Declaration.
