Choosing Hope and New Perspectives During the Pandemic

Life has changed for virtually everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic; this includes cancer scientists, survivors, and their families. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) continues to engage our member and survivor networks for their insights and to learn how to best support them. We recently checked in with Jill Hamer-Wilson, a survivor advocate who is an alum of the AACR Scientist↔Survivor Program® (SSP) and who is living with ALK, a rare form of lung cancer.

Jill credits much of her effectiveness as an advocate to her participation in the AACR SSP because it gave her credibility that opened doors to important work in Canada and around the world. As someone who has benefited from one treatment extending her life long enough for there to be a new treatment approved that then improved her life, and so on for nearly seven years since her initial diagnosis, Jill truly knows that cancer research can be the difference between life and death. She collaborates with a community of lung cancer advocates in Canada with a desire to work together to make a difference.

One of her greatest griefs in this pandemic is not being allowed into the Cancer Center in Ottawa, Canada where she first mobilized a team to man an information table on World Lung Cancer Day two years ago. “Cancer patients are inspired and encouraged to see how healthy we are,” Jill explains, referring to the importance of the in-person connections she and other volunteers, most of whom are cancer survivors, got to have with the cancer patients until COVID-19 precautions kept them from volunteering.

Jill recognizes other challenges resulting from the pandemic, such as some research slowing down, clinical trials not launching as planned, and some of the projects she was working on being paused. So, she’s shifted focus to determine how to be strategic in these times. Rather than focusing on the disappointments, she and her teammates choose to look for opportunities. And they are finding them.

For example, the shift to more people adopting virtual tools for meetings has created new opportunities to build advocacy relationships globally—even launching groups that may not have otherwise formed. “It’s really humbling to meet people from all over the place and learn what they are doing,” Jill explains.

There are other positives too, such as how the extension of a grant deadline for an organization Jill works with resulted in additional and unexpected funds being raised. And she is particularly encouraged by the number of drugs approved to treat lung cancer so far in 2020. She declares, “There are going to be so many lives saved, extended, improved.”

Jill states confidently, “COVID hasn’t stopped us.” At the AACR, we stand with her, other advocates, cancer survivors, and their families, as together we face this new set of challenges in our pursuit of treatments and cures for all types of cancer. We know that COVID-19 won’t stop us either.

The AACR’s 47,000 members worldwide have been at the forefront of every major advance and breakthrough in cancer research, prevention, detection, treatment, and cures. Donations help us ensure that this work continues during the pandemic and into the future.