A team of five cancer advocates are excited to announce that the article we wrote was published today!

A year ago today, Diane Manii and I were travelling to Banff Alberta to participate in an international conference for professionals who support people living with cancer.

My goal was to represent people with lung cancer and introduce myself to as many people as I could, kindly challenging them to do more for people affected by lung cancer.

I brought a pile of Canadian flag pins from the office of Catherine McKenna, my elected official. I’d been to her office for pins quite a few times in recent years, and her staff were always generous with pins and pleased to talk about lung cancer with me. Pins are a great excuse to build relationship, near and far. I gave out quite a few in Banff, while telling my lung cancer story to people and asking lots of questions about them and the situation where they work.

I had great conversations with a wide variety of people, including some that I had met prior to the conference. There are so many skilled and caring people working in the cancer world, but the people at this conference – social workers, physiotherapists, psychologists, and the like – asked me way more questions about my family and my cancer journey than most people typically do. I felt cared for as a person, and that was a good gift.

Many people came to hear Diane and me, when we presented about the Ottawa Lung Cancer Support Group. They listened intently as we spoke and asked thoughtful questions afterwards. I deeply hope that many of them have started up lung cancer support groups in the past year. We certainly challenged them to do so. If you want to start up a support group, it’s not hard and there are lots of people willing to help. Diane was an excellent leader who really got us started well, then left us in the very capable hands of Dr. Sophie Lebel when she retired.

For the first time ever, this conference was “Patients Included”, not only incorporating experiences, but also offering five scholarships for people affected by cancer to participate in the full conference.

These scholarships were earned by: Lorna Larsen (@TeamShan Breast Cancer Awareness for Young Women), Karen Haas (@caringcancermom Childhood Cancer advocate mom), Margaret Ng (Brain cancer survivor and wellness worker), Dr. Vicky Forster (@vickyyyf Childhood cancer survivor, cancer research scientist and science writer), and myself (@JillHW lung cancer survivor advocate). It was great to be able to connect with them all!

Vicky and I met when I was looking for a spot for lunch and noticed an empty seat beside her. It was a treat to meet someone so likeminded and engaging. Like me, she is a real people person and connector. We quickly discovered that we were both going to be in Toronto a few weeks later to serve as patient representatives with the Canadian Cancer Society.

We’re excited to share with you this paper about our experiences attending the conference. It is written by all five advocates, and Vicky Forster gave great leadership to the process, putting her connecting and communicating skills to work. Thank you, Vicky!

Research shows that partnerships lead to better research! Thank you to the International Psychosocial Oncology Society, The Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology, Dr. Fiona Schulte and Dr. Linda E. Carlson for strongly supporting patient/survivor advocates.

Thank you all for being #team.

You can read the whole article here.

#IPOS19 #CAPO19.