5 things you need to know to protect yourself against breast cancer

Did you know that breast cancer accounted for one-third of new cancer cases for females in the Philippines in 2018? According to The Global Cancer Observatory, the international agency for research on cancer, breast cancer cases amounted to 25,000 out of the almost 80,000 local cancer cases reported last year.

While most experts point out that there is no known cause of breast cancer, most agree that there are ways to reduce the risk.

AXA Philippines, one of the leading insurance providers in the country, offers various health insurance plans to help you prepare for unexpected health setbacks. Prevention is also important. Dr. Rachael Marie Rosario, executive director of the Philippine Cancer Society, a non-profit organization that seeks to help the Filipino cope with cancer through education, has these tips to help you protect yourself against breast cancer:

Have regular health checkups. "Early detection can save lives. It improves the chances of getting cured," says Dr. Rosario. She adds that when breast cancer is detected early, patients only needed a one-time operation. The American Cancer Society has said that a patient would need several treatments, depending on the stage of the disease, if breast cancer was detected late. Treatments usually include surgery and radiation therapy, often along with chemo or drug therapies before or after surgery. Treatment for metastatic breast cancer (cancer that has spread to other parts of the body) is usually a systemic (drug) therapy. Experts advise women to do breast self-examination once in a while and to consult a doctor if they suspect something is wrong. Check out this link for the how-to on the breast self-exam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtJPJrCeKdg

Live a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle is primary prevention. This means a balanced diet and maintaining an ideal weight. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of breast cancer. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, says Dr. Rosario. If you do not have the time to go to the gym, even the simplest physical activities like walking and cleaning the house will help.

Educate yourself. Dr. Rosario says that there is a lack of awareness of breast cancer among Filipinos. Many patients would consult a doctor only when the cancer was in a late stage. She says there were many factors that could increase the risk of having breast cancer such as having no children by the age of 30, a family history of breast cancer, and early menstruation or late menopause. If a woman has one or more of these factors, she should see a doctor regularly.

Avoid vices. Aside from being conscious about what you eat, you should also avoid smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol. Medical experts suggest that these habits can increase breast cancer risk, particularly in premenopausal women.

Get critical illness insurance coverage. Many people are intimidated by cancer because they worry about the medical cost. Women avoid screening for breast cancer for fear they will not have enough money and also will no longer be able to work.  AXA Philippines’ Health Start and Health Max offer you and your family protection from life-threatening illnesses at an affordable price. The insurance plan covers critical illnesses, including cancer, stroke, and heart attack. 

For more information on AXA’s health insurance products, visit https://www.axa.com.ph.

AXA is LFC principal partner

Liverpool FC has announced that AXA, the world’s leading insurance brand, has been appointed Principal Partner and the club’s new Official Training Kit Partner for the 2019/20 season.

To launch the new partnership, Liverpool FC and New Balance have revealed the new collection of training apparel, which will feature AXA branding throughout the range.

The New Balance collection includes warm up jackets, hoodies and sweatshirts, amongst other products, and is available in both adult and children’s sizes. Designed in grey and red pepper and just like the 2019/20 home kit, each product has been inscribed with Bob Paisley’s iconic signature on the inside, paying homage to the Reds’ most successful manager in the year in which he would have turned 100.

The Reds will begin training in the new AXA training kit this summer ahead of the 2019/20 season.

Billy Hogan, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer, Liverpool FC, said: “We’re delighted to be expanding our partnership with AXA to see them become a Principal Partner and new Official Training Kit Partner.  

“As a world-leader in its industry, AXA shares our ambitions and values, and we’ve already shared a lot of success since our partnership began in 2018. We look forward to building on our special relationship and continuing to bring to life fantastic experiences for our fans around the world.”

AXA will also continue working closely with the club’s men’s and women’s teams, managers, coaches and health professionals to support the shared goal of promoting healthy well-being and lifestyle. This is in line with AXA’s global tagline ‘Know You Can’ which symbolizes AXA's new promise to its customers, being an encouraging partner to help them feel more confident in achieving their goals and go further.

Thomas Buberl, Chief Executive Officer at AXA added: “We’re excited by this new important step in our partnership with Liverpool Football Club that started in 2018.  

“Featuring the AXA logo on the Liverpool FC training kit is a great symbol of our strong ambition to strengthen the AXA brand consideration globally.  

“By building on our similar values and vision with Liverpool FC, we will also be able to bring to life our new brand promise to our customers on self-belief with the tagline: ‘Know You Can’

The training kit range is available to purchase in store and online at http://store.liverpoolfc.com/.   

AXA Philippines renews licenses to operate its life and general insurance businesses.

  The Insurance Commission (IC) recently renewed the business licenses of AXA Philippines, one of the leading insurance companies in the country, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Charter Ping An Insurance Corp.

The renewal signifies that AXA Philippines’ life and general insurance businesses are in good standing with the IC and that the companies can continue offering their superior life and general insurance products to their customers, thereby helping them to live better and more empowered lives.

Photo shows AXA Philippines chief customer officer, Amor Balagtas with insurance commissioner Hon. Dennis Funa.

AXA Philippines receives Visionary Award for MyAXA Café

AXA Philippines, one of the leading insurance companies in the country, recently received the Visionary Award from Vision Critical, an international firm that provides continuous customer intelligence to power companies with the collective wisdom of the people that matter to them. The winning entry was MyAXA Café, a branded online insight community that provides secure, ongoing, and real-time feedback from customers.

Created in partnership with global service providers ABN Impact and Vision Critical, MyAXA Café is designed to generate faster, research-driven insight to help improve customer service and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also helps AXA create new and better products that are responsive to the needs of customers, while supporting an ongoing, two-way dialogue with them.

MyAXA Café has now become a vital tool to guide customer-centric decision-making processes within AXA Philippines, across multiple departments and stakeholders that may use it as a first step to making business decisions.

“By understanding our customers better through MyAXA Café, we are then able to design even better solutions to improve constantly the delivery of a frictionless customer experience,” says Rahul Hora, AXA Philippines president and CEO.

MyAXA Café has already made a difference in customer engagement. Through messages from customers left on MyAXA Café, AXA Philippines launched an engaging and simplified online financial needs analysis tool called Coach Finn that can support customers with their financial game plan. Customers helped AXA Philippines identify the approach, tone, and persona that will solicit their engagement. By iterating feedback from MyAXA Cafe, Coach Finn was a guaranteed success.

MyAXA Café received earlier the Silver Award from the prestigious Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards 2018. For more information, visit www.axa.com.ph.

AXA Philippines CEO named Outstanding Leader in Asia

AXA Philippines, one of the leading insurance companies in the country, was recently recognized at the prestigious Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards (ACES) 2018 held at the Fairmont Hotel in Singapore.

Its president and chief executive officer Rahul Hora (in photo) was named one of the “Outstanding Leaders in Asia” and was cited for his outstanding business acumen, professionalism, and entrepreneurial skills.

The unprecedented growth of the company – breaking the organization’s annual premium income records twice in 2017 – was attributed to his strong leadership.

The illustrious ACES awards recognize successful companies and individuals across Asia in two main domains: leadership and corporate social responsibility. For more information on AXA Philippines, visit www.axa.com.ph.

Rags2Riches – Uplifting Lives through Social Entrepreneurship

For entrepreneur Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, a major turning point in her life was when she was named Young Laureate for the Environment at the prestigious Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2010. The award brought international recognition to her efforts to help impoverished women in the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City through the social enterprise Rags2Riches, a fashion and design house that empowers underprivileged community artisans.

Using a business model based on collaboration and inclusivity, Fernandez-Ruiz sought to break down barriers between the underprivileged community and the market. She adopted a marketing strategy that took cottage industry to the next level.

More important, her efforts transformed the lives of the women in Payatas, who provide Rags2Riches its merchandise. From living lives of abject poverty, the women now live with pride and dignity, equipped with entrepreneurial and life skills to achieve their ambitions.

Rags2Riches enabled Fernandez-Ruiz to achieve two goals: Create sustainable and eco-ethical products by upcycling waste like rags, scraps of fabrics, etc. into bags and other fashion accessories, designed for the high-end market; and empower women entrepreneurs in Payatas by eliminating the middleman so they can sell directly to retailers. By partnering with top designers like Rajo Laurel and Amina Aranaz, the Payatas women were able to level up their creations to world-class standards.

Just as Fernandez-Ruiz helped the women reach their goals, AXA MyAmbition, an investment-linked product with insurance, also wants to help people secure their future and fulfill their dreams—by encouraging them to have a game plan in place that will enable them to live the life they choose.

AXA MyAmbition is an affordable investment and life insurance plan that’s the first in the country to be made purchasable online. It lets you grow your money by investing it in a fund best suited for you. A one-time investment of a minimum of P50,000 and a maximum of P125,000 is all that is needed to be on your way towards living the life you choose. What’s more, you also get life insurance coverage of 125% of the single premium or the account value, whichever is higher.

To learn more, visit axa.com.ph today.

ABOUT THE AXA GROUP

The AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 166,000 employees serving 107 million clients in 64 countries. In 2016, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 100.2 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 5.7 billion. AXA had Euro 1,429 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2016.

The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISN FR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA’s American Depository Share is also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.

The AXA Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD.

It is a founding member of the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Sustainable Insurance and a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

ABOUT AXA PHILIPPINES

AXA Philippines is a joint venture between the AXA Group and the Metrobank Group, one of the country’s largest financial conglomerates. AXA Philippines is 2nd leading life insurance company in the country, with P21.6 billion in gross premium income reported in 2016, and over 811,000 customers protected under various individual and group life insurance products.

Most recently, AXA Philippines announced its entry into the non-life insurance business with the acquisition of Charter Ping-An, the 5th largest non-life insurance company in the Philippines.