Shining a Light on Lung Cancer: A Community Tradition of Hope
September 16, 2026
Bringing people together, raising awareness, and creating hope for those impacted by lung cancer are what keep Daniel Craig, MS, TTS, and the team at Tammy Walker Cancer Center coming back to Shine a Light on Lung Cancer® year after year. Since 2017, the center has partnered with the North Central Regional Coalition and Masonic Cancer Alliance to host an event where survivors and families can connect, loved ones are remembered, and the community can learn more about lung cancer.
For Craig, cancer program manager and cancer outreach coordinator at Tammy Walker Cancer Center, Shine a Light has become an important annual tradition and an opportunity to start conversations that continue well beyond the event itself.
Bringing people together around lung cancer
Shine a Light on Lung Cancer is the largest coordinated lung cancer awareness program in the world. Every November during Lung Cancer Awareness Month, healthcare facilities, community organizations, businesses, patients, caregivers, and loved ones come together through events designed to educate, connect, and celebrate the lung cancer community.
At Tammy Walker Cancer Center, those connections are at the heart of the event.
Craig says Shine a Light helps create community connections, raise awareness, inspire hope, and keep lung cancer at the forefront of conversations throughout the year.
And sometimes, the most meaningful connections happen when people have the opportunity to hear directly from someone who understands what they are going through.
Craig says some of the most powerful moments at past Shine a Light events have come from pairing a local healthcare professional with a cancer survivor. Medical information and statistics can help people better understand lung cancer, but hearing a survivor share their personal experience can bring that information to life.
Together, those perspectives can create what Craig describes as a sense of hope and inspiration.
Turning awareness into conversations that matter
Shine a Light events can also help people learn about lung cancer risk, screening, early detection, and resources available in their own communities.
For Craig and his community, one topic in particular, radon, has generated conversations.
Radon is an environmental risk factor for lung cancer, but it had not previously been a major focus for the North Central Regional Coalition. When Shine a Light events included information about local radon levels, Craig noticed that community members wanted to know more.
That response helped the coalition recognize an opportunity for additional education.
It’s an example of what can happen when lung cancer awareness becomes a community conversation. People can ask questions, discover information they may not have encountered before, and learn about resources that can help them take action for themselves or someone they love.
There’s no single way to Shine a Light
One of the strengths of Shine a Light is that every community can make the event its own.
Events can be in person, virtual, or hybrid. Some feature patients and survivors sharing their stories. Others include remarks from healthcare professionals, educational information or giveaways, opportunities to remember loved ones, or activities that bring the community together.
An event doesn’t have to be large or elaborate to make a difference.
Craig encourages organizations interested in hosting their own event to start small and build from there. Over time, an event can grow as more patients, families, volunteers, healthcare professionals, and community partners become involved.
At Tammy Walker Cancer Center, collaborating with local organizations and connecting Shine a Light with existing community events has helped build relationships and reach more people.
But no matter what an event looks like, the purpose remains the same. The event aims to ensure that people affected by lung cancer have an opportunity to connect, learn, remember, and find hope.
A light that keeps shining
After years of hosting Shine a Light, Craig says the event has come to represent something deeply meaningful for the Tammy Walker Cancer Center team.
It means celebrating local survivors, remembering loved ones lost to lung cancer, helping people learn about prevention, screening, and early detection, and bringing a community together to raise awareness for lung cancer.
Those moments of connection extend far beyond a single event in November. Each conversation, story shared, question asked, and new connection can help build greater awareness and a stronger lung cancer community all year long.