Highlights of My Cancer Advocacy and Life for the Year 2023

As 2023 comes to an end, I look back at the past year that has left great memories. They are:

#10 I Became one of the 12 Cancer Grand Challenge Advocacy Panel members (photos below), which was established by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, USA. The panel is instrumental in helping develop how we embed advocacy within the initiative. We provide feedback on the approaches proposed to involvement and engagement with patients and the public more broadly.

#9 I joined the Patient Working Group (PWG), Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network (MOHCCN), Terry Fox Foundation, Canada (2023-). We had PWG Learning Exchange Event in November in Halifax. The theme is why and how we’re working together to accelerate precision medicine for cancer treatments.

#8 I’m a grant reviewer for several grants administered by the Canadian Cancer Society and I lead a 6-member patient-partner team to get involved and engaged with the cancer researchers at the University of Montreal (Canada) funded by the Canadian Cancer Society ($7.5M for 5 years).

#7 I attended the AACR Annual Meeting 2023, the Scientist & Survivor Program. AACR is the focal point of the cancer research community, where scientists, clinicians, survivors, patients, and advocates gather to share the latest advances in cancer science and medicine.

#6 I’m a Patient and Family Representative to the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO) Board, Canada. I also took part in the CAPO Annual Meeting 2023 in June.

#5 I’m a member of Conquer Cancer Grants Selections Committee (ASCO). We mainly reviewe the Layperson Abstract, Patient Advocate Form, and the patient advocate letter of support, and providing constructive comments and reflective scores.

#4 I led a research project on worry and fear experienced by Canadian lung cancer patients early this year. The research was presented in different conferences.

#3 I learned to make video clips for cancer advocacy. The outcome was great. So far, I posted 20 episodes of video clips (one per week) and have more than 10K viewers.