Call to Action: Getting Involved in Cancer Policy Advocacy
Cancer affects millions of Americans every year. Policy advocacy is a way for patients, survivors, caregivers, and health care providers to share their stories with lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels to support bills and funding for improved oncology care, prevention, and clinical research.
Policy advocacy is different than patient advocacy. For more information about becoming an advocate for yourself in your individual medical care, click here.
How to Get Involved
There are lots of ways to get involved in policy advocacy with different audiences, levels of formality, and platforms. Some examples are:
- Government: Can be things like federal level “Hill Days” in Washington D.C. or meeting with representatives at your state capitol or city hall.
- Trainings, Meetings, Webinars: Hosted by nonprofits to learn advocacy skills, understand current policy issues, and practice sharing your story.
- Community events: Includes health fairs, expos, and wellness events to raise awareness and connect with others in the cancer community.
- Fundraising: Support advocacy and research efforts by participating in or organizing events like walks, galas, or online campaigns.
- Corporate partnerships: Can be things like partnering with businesses that sponsor advocacy efforts, fund research, or promote awareness campaigns.
- Simply sharing your story: Via social media, blogs, or peer support groups to raise awareness about needed policy changes.
Who You’ll Meet
- Patients
- Survivors
- Caregivers
- Directors of federal agencies or local organizations
- Researchers, doctors, health care providers
What to Expect
Most organized advocacy efforts require you to participate in training sessions that help you understand the policy “asks”, build skills in effective communication, and practice telling your story. Sharing your story may be intimidating at first, but remember that everyone is coming together to achieve the same goals, and many share similar experiences.
Sharing your personal experiences is the most valuable part of advocacy! It helps lawmakers connect policy issues to real-life impact. In government advocacy, meetings often take place with someone on the representative’s staff rather than the representative themselves. It’s important to remember that these conversations are just as important because legislative staff help guide a lawmaker’s policy positions and priorities.
Some events may require registration fees or travel costs, so it’s important to check with organizers about if scholarships or financial assistance are available.
Why Advocacy is Important
Advocacy is the most important part of impacting change to public policy regarding cancer policy, as it uplifts the voices of those who are directly affected. The stories patients, survivors, and caregivers share highlight gaps in care and call for progress towards a cancer-free world.
Advocacy has led to great policy wins, like:
- Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act (2026): Addresses delays in care for children on Medicaid and CHIP who need out-of-state treatment and allows providers to enroll in multiple state Medicaid programs.
- Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act (2026): Provides the FDA with the authority to direct pediatric cancer trials for combination drugs for approval, as combinations have been demonstrated to be the best chance of new cures for kids with cancer.
- Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act (2025): Expands the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) program to provide one-time financial payments to the families of firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other first responders who have died or become permanently disabled in the line of duty, as well as educational benefits to the spouses and children of fallen officers.
- PACT Act (2022): Expands VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances, and expands coverage to those who develop cancers. This law helps us provide generations of Veterans, and their survivors, with the care and benefits they’ve earned and deserve.
- Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, Research (STAR) Act (2018): Expands opportunities for childhood cancer research, improves efforts to identify and track incidences of childhood cancer, expedite the discovery of less toxic treatments, and enhances the quality of life for childhood cancer survivors.