It didn’t take long for the trash-talking to start. As soon as Jamie Studts logged onto the Zoom call, Nancy Alvey needed a drink of water—from her University of Wisconsin (UW) mug. Studts, of course, had donned his University of Iowa (UI) fleece for the occasion.

Meet Nancy Alvey: lung cancer survivor and advocate, UW superfan, and Kentucky resident.

Meet Jamie Studts: PhD, psychologist by training, cancer prevention control researcher, member of GO2 for Lung Cancer’s Scientific Leadership Board, and UI superfan. The longtime University of Kentucky professor recently joined the faculty at the University of Colorado.

The two friends met when Studts, then at the University of Kentucky, was looking for lung cancer advocates who could serve on a community advisory board on survivorship care. He contacted GO2 for Lung Cancer, which referred him to Alvey. She brought her lived experience to the research team. She’s since participated in the National Lung Cancer Roundtable’s Survivorship, Stigma, and Nihilism Task Group. And now Alvey’s a co-investigator on a new Kentucky LEADS Survivorship Care study, working alongside GO2 for Lung Cancer’s Angela Criswell, Director of Quality Screening and Program Initiatives, and Maureen Rigney, Senior Director, Support Initiatives, to look at the program framework and resources needed to improve quality of life and wellbeing for people diagnosed with lung cancer and their caregivers.

A shared passion for expanding access to survivorship care.

Thanks to Studts and his colleagues at the Kentucky LEADS (Lung Cancer Education, Awareness, Detection, and Survivorship) Collaborative, Kentucky has become one of the leading states in terms of lung cancer screening. Now they’re looking to expand access to survivorship resources.

“Nancy and I share an interest in making survivorship programs available regardless of where you receive your cancer care,” said Studts. “Whether you live in rural Appalachia, or Western Kentucky, or Alaska, we want to develop programs that make it easy to support individuals who have been diagnosed with lung cancer.”

A shared passion for their home teams.

Circling back to the football bet, Alvey explains that it started a few years back. “We decided that when our teams play each other, whoever’s team loses gets to donate to GO2 for Lung Cancer in the other person’s name.”

On October 30, the Wisconsin Badgers beat the University of Iowa Hawkeyes 27-7. As a fan of the losing team, Studts donated in Alvey’s name. A loss—for a worthy cause.

Finally, Alvey reminds her friend, “So far, I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve only had to pay out once.” Because the trash-talking, fittingly, goes on long after the game is over. And, either way, GO2 for Lung Cancer wins!