While much of Australia’s media spent last week focused on Harry and Meghan’s visit, at Icon Group our attention was very much on another Princess – Princess Dina Mired of Jordan.
Princess Dina was visiting Icon in her capacity as President of UICC (Union for International Cancer Control), a role which she was elected to in 2018 after working in an ambassadorial capacity for the organisation for a number of years. Her passion for quality cancer care services was triggered by personal experience, when her two year old son was diagnosed with leukaemia in the 90’s.
Following his successful treatment, she wanted to ensure that her fellow Jordanians had access to quality cancer care services, which saw her form the King Hussein Cancer Foundation, an organisation that today raises millions of dollars per year and funds the provision of world class cancer care to the people of Jordan.
This princess is definitely not afraid to roll up her sleeves and do any job required, and our team loved hearing her stories of emerging from the back room where she was working on spreadsheets and planning documents in relation to a new facility or piece of equipment, just in time to pop on her lipstick and a pair of heels and cut the ribbon on it.
Princess Dina toured the Icon offices on Friday morning, where she introduced herself to literally every person in the building, taking the time to understand what each of their roles was and the impact they were having on patient care. Australia’s geographically diverse population base sees us ideally placed to create technology driven solutions to deal with the resource challenges this creates, and Her Highness was immediately able to identify how a number of these could also be utilised in the developing world to make a real difference in meeting the global cancer burden.
Icon are a founding partner of the UICC’s City Cancer Challenge, with Icon CEO Mark Middleton a member of its inaugural board. The City Cancer Challenge is about increasing access to cancer care in cities across the globe with a population greater than 1 million, and we and the Princess are excited to further explore how systems and processes developed at Icon Group can assist in meeting this need.
The entire office was buzzing by the time Princess Dina completed her tour – which included celebrating becoming the first external person to be recognised on our new values recognition board!- but the impact didn’t end there.
We couldn’t have thought of a more fitting person to embody our Iconic Women program, and the Princess had very kindly agreed to address more than 70 of our team members who joined us for lunch. As well as those who were physically in the room, her address and the subsequent Q&A session was live streamed so all of our team members had the opportunity to participate either in real time if patient care commitments allowed, or at a later time that suited.
Again the Princess shared her time and knowledge generously, and by the time I sat back down at the table post the Q&A there were already ideas flowing around how people could contribute at an individual level.
It’s easy to be dismissive of the role of royalty in the modern world, but individuals like Princess Dina illustrate just how much positive impact a royal title and it’s accompanying influence can create. Harry and Meghan may have attracted the majority of the headlines, utilising their own impact to highlight the importance of changed narratives and behaviours around mental health, but the influence Princess Dina has already had and will continue to deliver in the world of cancer care is equally significant.
It was a great privilege for us to host this truly Iconic Princess, and everyone at Icon is excited to work with her and the rest of the City Cancer Challenge team to deliver on our shared mission of bringing the best care possible to as many people as possible as close to home as possible.