OVAC Lobby Day: 7/7-7/8

This may be a little haphazard, but I’ll try to keep it somewhat organized.

The OVAC Lobby Days took place Monday July 7th and Tuesday July 8th. This is the first time I’ve done any type of lobbying, and was therefore an overwhelming, educational, terrifying, overall exhilarating experience.

OVAC, One Voice Against Cancer is a collaboration of non-profit organizations working together to try to find cures for cancer. OVAC has representatives from all across the country, every walk of life, all cancers. We all spoke of our personal experiences, which are very different, but our goal was the same, so we truly were speaking against cancer with One Voice. There’s something oddly uniting about the subject of cancer. We all know someone who has been touched by it in some way. Each of us at the event had our own personal connection to cancer. That is what brought us together.

Monday started with registration, and for me, a sort of awkward wandering around in the lobby until a few of us got to talking. The ladies I befriended in the lobby each shared their own personal stories. One of the ladies told me about her mother who had bladder cancer. Luckily she had responded to treatment, and is doing quite well now, but the experience is what inspired her to become an activist for BCAN (Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network)The other young lady I had the privilege to meet had very recently lost her sister to brain cancer. The pain was still so visibly fresh for her, and I admire her so much for having the strength to join the Brain Tumor association and tell her sister’s story.

After getting to know one another we went in to begin our training. https://www.flickr.com/photos/96126987@N00/14654799465/in/set-72157645186462238There were 88 participants from 30 states, and I’d say about 1/2 of us are newbies, so I was not completely alone 🙂 During training we were given 3 very specific goals, or asks; the end goal is of course making cancer research and prevention a top priority, thereby finding better treatment options, and hopefully cures. Specifically though we were asking for 1) $5.26 billion to be provided for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) 2) to ensure a proportional increase to NCI’s funding when there is an increase in the NIH’s funding, and 3) $510 million to be budgeted for the CDC Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

These are pretty big things to be asking for, and pretty intimidating to be asking political leaders for them. But who else should we speak to other than the people with the power to help make the changes we are asking for? To speak to the decision makers, to tell them what their constituents want, and need; that is why we were there.

It was stressed to us during training that making a connection with the representative, congressperson, or staffer is a good way to start. Tell them where you’re from; down to the street or the neighborhood, then tell your story. Grab their attention; remind them where they are from. If you can make an emotional connection with them then tell them your story, then hopefully they will remember you better.

So with the goal of being remembered in mind, I plotted out a few ideas for the following day. Knowing that my nerves may get the better of me, I decided that it may be best for me to focus on the emotional aspect of our presentations. I’ve always been a nervous test-taker, and to me trying to remember the facts and figures felt very much like a test. I often get tongue tied when put on the spot, but I knew there were certain facts I knew I’d get right. I decided to focus on my story; when I was diagnosed, what my disease is, the treatment options available, and also the cost of said treatments.

I was in a very small delegation from my state. VERY. SMALL. There were only two of us. So our meetings were rather short. We started the day on the senate side of the Capitol. We met with a staffer from Senator McCaskill’s office, and from Senator Blunt’s office. After the meeting with Senator Blunt’s office, we had lunch, then headed over to the House side. There we had a meeting with Ann Wagner (My state Representative) and a staffer from Sam Graves’ office (my fellow Missourian’s representative) All of the presentations on Tuesday, while brief were very meaningful.

My favorite part of the presentation is when I would start telling them about PegIntron, the medication that I have had the most success with. At this point I would pull out the box of meds that I brought with me, place it on the table in front of me and say “This drug is not yet FDA approved for use in MPN patients. I have been denied 3 times by my insurance company on the grounds that my purposes are “off label”.  This box costs $2000. It contains ONE dose of medicine. I take this once a week. That’s $104,000 per year for however many years I’m lucky enough to remain alive.” That tended to leave a strong impression on the folks I was speaking to. And then I would start to work in the asks. “With better funding for research, better treatments could potentially be approved for patients. More accessible treatments, mean healthier, more productive constituents.”

 While I was the only person I know of that was there representing MPNs, I am hoping that my presentation was memorable, not just to our elected officials, but also to the other participants. Just about everyone I spoke to had never heard of MPNs. So I’d like to think that I helped educate some other members of the cancer community.

I’m realizing now that I’ve done an awful lot of rambling, so I will leave you for now 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll be posting the mind-body techniques I referenced in my last post!

As always, you are your own best advocate. If you do not take care of yourself, who will?

Until next time,

Lina