Qatar Airways wins award for raising funds and awareness of breast cancer

Qatar Airways celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness month with a series of initiatives and activities to raise both awareness and funds for the disease that affects women all around the world. The airline’s efforts were recognised at the Beauty & Beast Awards, held at Eatopia on October 28^th, Doha, Qatar, when Qatar Airways presented a cheque for QAR 83,000. The money, which was raised through bake sales held at various locations in Doha, will go towards Qatar Cancer Society.

During the course of activities, Qatar Airways staff took to their kitchens to whip up a number of delicious sweets and goodies which were sold over the course of the last week in October. Simultaneously, the award-winning airline organised a series of workshops and awareness-raising events to help alert staff to the dangers of the disease, and how periodic self-assessment and early diagnosis is vital to successful treatment.   

Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Customer Experience, Rossen Dimitrov said: “It was such a great honour to be able to hand over a cheque from Qatar Airways to Qatar Cancer Society in support of breast cancer research and awareness. This was a labour of love from our employees and it was due to their hard work, dedication and commitment to this worthy cause that we were able to do so. We also held information sessions for our female employees, where they had an opportunity to speak to survivors, as well ask questions. It is our hope that everyone learned a little bit more about this disease which we unfortunately have all been affected by, including in our own Qatar Airways family.”

Female employees were encouraged to take part in one of three information sessions held at the Oryx Rotana on October 28^th. In addition to survivors sharing their stories, guest speakers such as Qatar Airways Senior Vice President HR Employee Services, Nabeela Fakhri, and Qatar Airways Head of Medical Services, Dr. Soha Al-Bayat, helped advise employees on how to deal with the disease.

Participants also had the opportunity to watch a video created by the airline featuring one of their very own employees, Qatar Airways Cabin Services Director, Mylah Loring. The video, which is featured on the airline’s multiple social media channels, shares the emotional story of Mylah’s breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and conquering of the disease.   As explained during the Qatar Airways information sessions, women are highly encouraged to perform monthly breast self-examination, with a professional breast self-examination conducted by their GP or gynaecologist at least once a year. Once women reach the age of 40 years old, they are encouraged to get a mammogram every two years.

Qatar Airways is one of the fastest growing airlines operating one of the youngest fleets in the world. Now in its 18th year of operations, Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 168 aircraft flying to 152 key business and leisure destinations across six continents.