On September 10, 2004, a little angel called Mariam Hamed from Palestine passed away at the age of 8 in Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, following a three-year determined battle of treatment against cancer in Rambam Hospital in Haifa. As a Palestinian cancer patient's family, the Hamed family had to go through a great lot of obstacles and hardships due to the lack of resources available for the Palestinian community, let alone the distorted image the community has regarding cancer and cancer patients. Through the cancer journey, the Hamed family had been witnessing other families facing literal misery and paradoxes: death and life; tears of joy and sorrow; and the unaffordability and unavailability of treatment. Having to witness and live such an experience, Mariam's eldest brother, Mohammad, who was always by her side, and was only 15 when she rested to eternal peace, by her side all the time, Mohammad decided that something must be changed

Until he reached the legal age of 22 at which he can establish a non-profit, he volunteered, individually in supporting cancer patients, and wrote a booklet about the journey of his sister fighting cancer, which he ended with a promise to establish the Mariam Foundation to help cancer patients in their treatment journey, along working on the way the local community perceive and talk about cancer.











In 2012, after reaching the legal age, and after 7 years of extensive planning and studying on how to establish a non-profit, Mariam Foundation was officially established making it the first Arab non-profit for fighting cancer. Since then, Mariam Foundation has been offering its services to every human being regardless of their ethnicity or background. Mariam Foundation offers cancer patients and their families 360-degree support and care of their wellbeing to facilitate their cancer treatment and battle. Mariam Foundation has become the second home for cancer patients, and the main address for support. Mariam Foundation offers numerous services to cancer patients including an array of both financial and emotional support; security of medical treatments that are not covered by medical insurances; daily companions for children with cancer in hospitals; and many more.







 

Over the years, the foundation has built strong bonds and partnerships with hospitals and healthcare services, becoming the main, most reliable non-profit for these institutions and the institutional medical system, which contributed to gaining a huge trust and following in the community as reflected in active interaction with the foundation's news, events, and activities.

At the same time, Mariam Foundation works on raising awareness about cancer and the significance of early detection through medical conferences, festivals, lectures delivered by specialists at the foundation, hospitals, clubs, schools and to all segments of society.