06 APRIL 2026

Dear Carers:

Did you ever hear the story about 4 blindfolded men describing the animal in front of them using their hands, and not their eyes? Each person went on to describe this animal using their sense of touch. One described the animal as long, tubular, flexible with a hole in the end, the second man described the animal as thin, pliable, and flat. The third described it as strong and grounded, like a pillar. The last person described the animal as semi rounded but flat, firm and large.

None of them were wrong in their description, but none of them was entirely right, either. The reason for this “limited description” of what turned out to be an elephant is because they were unable to use their sense of sight, and even if they could, they would still be limited in their capacity to describe the elephant because of their perspective, they were too close to the elephant and could not see the big picture.

There are many allegorical insights lent by this story, but to the me, an important lesson would be we are all limited in our ability to see what is true or real, sometimes because of our human limitations in using our senses or knowledge, sometimes because our biases and egos insist ours is the only correct perspective and anyone with a different description of an “elephant” is wrong, others because what is true in their part of the world (or of the elephant) is not true in other parts of the world (or of the elephant).

Data gathering is one way of gaining knowledge and evidence of what is true. However, we are all limited by the mere fact that we are all only human and limited in very many ways. This is where a whole-of-society or interdisciplinary team approach to health care can be very useful. Each member of the team can cover the other’s blind spots aka biases. Each member brings in a different set of lived and learned experiences and knowledge base, all of which are valid and have an element of truth.

When we gather at a roundtable meetings or at community townhalls, let us leave our egos at the door, communicate clearly, listen attentively, share our knowledge openly, all for the greater good, then perhaps we will together continually move forward and upward ever closer to our goal of better healthcare for the Filipino cancer patient.

Trixie Tiangco

April 2026