Felix Burda Foundation

The Hubert Burda Media Corporation
The Felix Burda Foundation is a non-profit-making institution of the Hubert Burda Media Corporation. From its base in Germany, Hubert Burda Media publishes more than 250 general and special interest magazines in 27 countries across the world. The corporation is also strongly involved in businesses which are driven by innovative communication and information technologies.

The Felix Burda Foundation
The Foundation was established by Hubert Burda and Christa Maar and carries the name of their son Felix Burda who died of colon cancer in 2001 at the age of 33. The Foundation sees its main task in creating public awareness for the potential benefits of the early detection of colorectal cancer and in motivating large numbers of people to undergo a screening examination.

Epidemiological and Medical Background
Colon cancer has the second highest incidence and mortality rates of all cancers in Europe (400,000 new cases and 200,000 fatalities each year) while (besides skin and cervical cancer) it is the only type of cancer which can be prevented almost totally. Screening, on the one hand, serves to detect and remove preliminary stages of carcinomas (adenomas) which are not yet cancer. Screening, on the other hand, provides a unique opportunity to detect carcinomas in their very early stages when they can be successfully treated and cured.


Marketing and Public Relation Campaigns of the Felix Burda Foundation
For its public relation and marketing activities, the Foundation makes full use of the resources generously provided by the Hubert Burda Media Corporation. All of the Corporation's German magazines are publishing the Foundation's ads free of charge. The Foundation's numerous activities to mark March as the "Annual Colon Cancer Awareness Month" are also generously supported by all the other German media companies who provide the print ads with nearly blanket coverage in their newspapers and magazines for about eight weeks around the month of March. In addition, the Foundations's commercials are transmitted free of charge by many TV and radio stations.

 "Ignore what your stomach tells you!Go and get screened!" Vladimir Klitchko joined the Campaign against CRC in 2006

Network Established by the Felix Burda Foundation
The second focus of the Felix Burda Foundation's activities is the establishment of a network between the individual stakeholders. The Foundation is the driving force behind the overall campaign, using its wide network of scientists from different disciplines, representatives from health insurance providers, politics, cancer societies, patients' organisations and companies to make the prevention of colorectal cancer and the improvement of the existing screening programme an ongoing issue of discussions in public health and health politics.

Providing Advice and Support for Colon Cancer Patients
The Foundation also operates an Internet platform (www.darmkrebs.de) to provide support for colon cancer patients and their families. This platform is the most comprehensive German-language source of information about the disease, providing the latest relevant facts and figures to its users. Patients with severe financial problems caused by their colorectal cancer illness can request a bridging grant from the Foundation.

Facts and figures 2001- 2010

March 2001 First interdisciplinary conference „Beat Colon Cancer through Early Detection" organised by the Felix Burda Foundation and partners in Munich. The participating experts agree on a "Munich Declaration", calling for the introduction of a quality-assured screening programme and the reduction of the colon cancer mortality rate by half in the years to come.

Summer 2001 First PR campaign of the Felix Burda Foundation: print ads on the base of an innovative image language are placed in all magazines of Burda Media; a TV commercial shot by the internationally known German movie director Wim Wenders is broadcast by all German TV stations. The fresh language of the campaign is well received and motivates many people to undergo their first screening colonoscopy.
Advertisement from the Campaign 2001


March 2002 First nation-wide Colon Cancer Awareness Month, jointly conducted by all major cancer organisations at the initiative of the Felix Burda Foundation. Many institutions, individuals and media organisations take their cue from the campaign and conduct regional and local activities of their own. The Colon Cancer Awareness Month receives a huge echo in the media. It also succeeds in creating a momentum: colon cancer screening, for the first time ever, becomes a subject of everyday conversation.


The official Logo of the German Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

 

March 2002 New advertising campaign of the Felix Burda Foundation: some of the most famous German media celebrities  agree to campaign for participation in colon cancer screening. One celebrity undergoes a colonoscopy which is broadcast on TV, significantly increasing the number of enquiries about the examination. 

October 2002 New early detection guidelines: Following the intense presence of the subject in the media, the public health insurance providers entitle all citizens to undergo a free of charge screening colonoscopy after their 55th birthday. 700,000 people undergo the examination in the first year of the new regulation.

 Michael Schumacher: "My most important pit stop is the CRC screening examination."

 

Autumn 2002 Colon cancer screening as corporate health measure: The Felix Burda Foundation asks the 200 largest German corporations to integrate colon cancer screening into their corporate health programmes. Many of the enterprises comply. Millions of employees have since been provided with screening instructions at their workplace, and a substantial percentage of them have taken the opportunity to get screened.

April 2003 First TV entertainment show about colon cancer prevention: On the occasion of the Colon Cancer Awareness Month, the leading public service TV network (Channel 1) agrees to broadcast a primetime evening show which features acts from major German show-biz stars and testimonials for colon cancer prevention.

2004 Official recognition of the network of the Foundation as a ‘registered charity': The official registration gives larger numbers of individuals and institutions the opportunity to work more closely together in order to improve the colon cancer screening situation in Germany.

2001-2006 Six Years of Activities - Results:

  • 2.5 million German people with no symptoms have undergone a screening colonoscopy since the start of the new German colonoscopy programme in late 2002. The colonic carcinomas which were detected by screening were mostly in early stages when they can be cured.
  • 10,000 people whose carcinomas have been detected at an early stage could be cured by successful treatment.
  • 100,000 people with pre-cancerous adenomas were saved from developing colon cancer and needed no further treatment at all.

2005/06 Organising workshops with experts from different fields which focus especially on the increase of participation rates and the quality of screening examinations. The ongoing discussion about invitation schemes and the prevention of high-risk groups highlight the importance of cross-border and pan-European structures into which the individual national programmes should be embedded.

May 2007 European Conference on Colon Cancer Prevention in Brussels:
The Felix Burda Foundation therefore takes the opportunity to organize a pan-European conference of experts on colon cancer prevention in Brussels. The conference provides an overview of the status quo with analyses of the various screening methods, their effectiveness and cost-efficiency, the status of screening in the individual European member states and examples from best practice. Experts and representatives of the relevant institutions, medical societies and public health bodies from 28 countries agree on a "Declaration of Brussels - Europe against Colorectal Cancer", calling for a pan-European action plan and EU guidelines which - in an analogy to the breast cancer screening guidelines - support the quality-assured implementation of national screening programmes.

Advertisement from the Campaign 2008

2008  Advertising Campaign "I feel good": During the campaign featured in printed press and television, celebrities encouraged readers and viewers to go to preventive medical check-ups. Especially so, if they feel well and do not suffer from any symptoms, as colon cancer is an illnesses which develops unnoticed for a long period of time. 

2008 National Cancer plan of the Federal Ministry of Health: Christa Maar, chairman of the foundation, takes part in the work group of the national cancer plan, which develops suggestions on how to improve colon cancer prevention

 
 

2008  New PR-Tool Faszination Darm, the biggest colon model in Europe: By giving visitors the chance to experience the healthy organ and see colon cancer in different stages, this walk-through colon model (65 feet long, 10 feet high) encourages to think about and participate in colon cancer prevention. The course through the colon is self-explanatory and the accompanying texts do not require prior knowledge of the subject. Information on the functions of the colon and the possibilities of colon cancer prevention are conveyed in a hands-on manner.

 Visitors inside the model  

2009 First Transatlantic Symposium to improve Colon Cancer Prevention: Meeting of international experts from different fields to exchange knowledge about the best practice for the implementation of cancer screening and to learn from each other.

Early 2009  Results after 8 years of foundation work:

  • Initiation of the preventive coloscopy for insurants of a state
    health plan from 55 years on.
  • Decrease of the mortality rate by 20% from 58% (2001) to 38% (2008).
  • The amount of lethal colon cancer progressions decreases by
    approximately 1000 every year.
 
Advertisement from 2010		 

2010  The recent Advertising Campaign: In the most recent campaign, featured in printed press, television, radio and online, comedians encourage readers and viewers to go to preventive medical check-ups. The main focus is set on the fact that as funny as the comedians are in their respective roles and characters, when the topic is on colon cancer, it gets serious even for them. Prevention is the best tool to keep on smiling.