We have 220 million people in Brazil with many different causes of disease. We have mostly related to obesity and diabetes and also life environmental factors.

So the same causes as in other countries?

Yes, the same causes and we do have also poverty and lack of sanitation. So we have both things in balance. It means that we have the worst from each situation, that would be the underdeveloped countries and also the highly qualified countries in the world.

But it is a fascinating laboratory. What messages are coming out of this for what you do about cancer incidence? I know you’re looking at young people quite a lot, aren’t you?

Yes, and there is a common goal for everybody, that’s tobacco use, that we have been able to lower that to less than 20%.

You have done that?

Yes, we have done that.

How did you do it?

In the last twenty years with lots of connections with the civil societies and governments and also passing laws through the major assemblies in Brazil. So we are able to really…

So the legislation has been a big, key factor.

Yes, legislation has been really key but not just the legislation but the advocacy and also the civil societies partnering together have been very important.

It’s a mix; if you want to prevent cancer it’s a mix between smoking, lifestyle, activity, exercise as well. How do you promote these positive factors and tell people they can be cool?

Nowadays we are working together with more than one hundred medical societies in Brazil. So we went to put into the agenda of everybody the goal to treat these diseases before they appear.

And prevent them to begin with.

Yes, to prevent them from the very beginning. So we are working with all these medical societies; we have a portfolio of activities and different levels of information and for the public and also trying to reach the connection with the Brazilian Health Ministry.

But it’s not just information, is it? It’s fashion, it’s a feeling of wellbeing. How do you make these things really happen?

We are not making it happen yet.

But you said you have in smoking, reduced smoking.

Oh yes, that is really… that came together with maybe the consciousness that it could be possible. We have really addressed the issue in different forms together, always pulling together different levels of society. So the partnership that came for the tobacco fight is there but what we want to do now is to address the use, because the young population are still smoking and they will be the users for the future.

They could be fashion leaders and it might destroy your efforts.

Yes, yes.

How do you prevent that happening then? What are the key messages that you’d pass on to other organisers in different parts of the world in order to succeed?

Yes, we need education in the school level so we need to teach the teachers how to utilise some tools that are there already and some programmes that we are partnering with the Brazilian Medical Association on how to cope with the tobacco cessation for the use. So I think that these programmes that can be established together can really impact the future.

And obesity, of course, is another big factor, isn’t it, and lack of exercise?

Obesity, yes. And obesity, it means lifestyle changes. It’s very difficult when you have so much of these young people, more than 50% of our young people are already obese. Overweight, and 20% of them would be obese.

But you mentioned legislation, would you favour having legislation about food content?

Yes, we had an agreement with the producers to lower the salt content of the food and also the sugar content of the food. So that was a whole agreement in Brazil among partners and the producers and the government.

So if you were to sum up in two or three words what are the messages you want to pass on to the world right now, coming from Brazil, what would that be?

We are trying to connect to the producers’ chain of food and we are trying to do a good momentum to really work for the future in the way that we will have a better youth and a better grown-up people really together with these health issues balancing. How would you do that in a short, let’s say, message is the improvement of health of all populations is based on the future of our youth.

So youth are the key.

So we need to focus on the youth lifestyle and behaviour. If we are able to do that, connected to the producers and the advertisements and also take advantage of their already existing habits we can impact that better and maybe we can change their lifestyle for the future.