Jan Geissler

In July 2001, Jan received his diagnosis of CML at a routine check-up. He then joined a phase I/II clinical trial. As hardly any information on upcoming treatments was available in the German language, he started to simplify and translate medical publications into German language. In 2002, he started to publish them by founding the online patient community Leukämie-Online (http://www.leukaemie-online.de), which is one of the most frequented patient websites on leukemia in the German speaking Internet today. Leukämie-Online became a charitable organisation in Germany in 2006, with Jan being the Chair.

In 2007, Jan co-founded the CML Advocates Network (http://www.cmladvocates.net) together with other CML patient groups from Israel, the UK and Czech Republic. The goal of the web-based platform is to get organisations connected that are supporting patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Today, members include 131 CML groups from all continents, sharing best practice in cancer patient advocacy and campaigning for better treatment and care of CML patients world wide.

Jan is also a co-founder of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), a board member of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP), and acts on a number of advisory boards.