Global Health Grand Rounds: The Need for Global Health Equity in Cancer Care

Weill Cornell Global Health Grand Rounds presents

Fighting for a Second Chance:
The Need for Global Health Equity in Cancer Care

Seun Adebiyi, JD

Seun Adebiyi is a cancer survivor, a lawyer and is now training to be the first Nigerian athlete in the Winter Olympics.  His vision is to build the first bone marrow registry in Nigeria.  In 2010, NBC named Seun one of its 100 "History Makers in the Making"

                                                          Monday, May 7, 2012
                                                                 5:00-6:00pm

                                                         Weill Auditorium (C-200)
                                                                1300 York Avenue
                                                      Weill Cornell Medical College
                                                                  New York, NY
                                                              Open to the Public

Hosted by the WCMC Global Health Curriculum & Weill Cornell Cancer Center

Biography: Seun Adebiyi
Seun Adebiyi is a graduate of the Yale Law School, an alumnus of Goldman Sachs, and a 2014 Winter Olympic contender. Previously, Seun competed internationally as a member of the Nigerian swim team, just missing the 2004 Olympics by one tenth of a second. His current sport, skeleton, is an 80 mph headfirst plunge down a mile-long ice chute. In June 2009, however, Seun's quest to become the first Winter Olympian from Nigeria was derailed by two rare and aggressive blood cancers, stem cell leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma. His survival hinged upon a stem cell transplant yet, due to his African heritage, his odds of finding a matching donor were less than 17%. Seun became a public advocate for cancer patients and set twin goals of recruiting 10,000 donors and building a bone marrow donor registry in Nigeria.

Seun eventually found a matching donor and received a stem cell transplant in February 2010, and is currently over two years in remission. He also succeeded in recruiting 10,000 donors and launching a bone marrow registry in Nigeria, only the second registry in Africa. His next goal is to build the first umbilical cord blood bank in Africa, in order to improve the survival odds for black patients all over the world. In 2010, NBC named Seun one of its 100 "History Makers in the Making."