All for one, and one for all! Patient power at ESMO 16 | The Cancer Blog

All for one, and one for all! Patient power at ESMO 16 | The Cancer Blog

 
....There was overflow needed for most Patient Track sessions, and those that were attending to listen were not just Patient Advocates, but the Oncologists, the Researchers, and the Pharma representatives. That’s because what we have to say is important and well informed – this is not our job it is our lives, so what could be more important to us?
Often the general public don’t understand the complexities of difference in cancer until you get one. It’s not a topic one reads up on for fun, most only keep up if they are personally connected. Also, all cancers are not created equal – it can become all too apparent that maybe you didn’t get the one with the most support or media air time or the most funding attached to researching it. But at the ESMO patient’s track this year I didn’t feel any of that. I felt instead part of a movement, a revolution of sorts that brought us all together bound by the one thing we have in common: a deep rooted desire to achieve the best for patients no matter what type of cancer they have. We are all in the same boat, there was no paddling your own canoe at ESMO.....