What Happens in Washington Sends Ripples Across the Land

Your participation in the Lung Cancer Voices Summit also impacts your local community.

Sharing your story is an important way to help lawmakers and their staff to understand what it’s like to live with lung cancer—and why we need more research, more screening and more treatment options.

That’s why we gather every year for the Lung Cancer Voices Summit, a national call to action that brings together lung cancer advocates from across the United States. A highlight of our Lung Cancer Voices Summit is direct advocacy, as people with lung cancer and their caregivers meet with elected officials to urge them to recognize that all patients deserve high-quality care and depend on research funding and early detection for survivorship.

Because lung cancer is personal. In 2021 alone, an estimated 235,000 Americans were diagnosed with lung cancer. Each one is someone’s mother, father, daughter, son, brother, sister, husband, wife and/or best friend. People are diagnosed with and live with lung cancer in all 50 states—which is why it’s so important to have people from all across the country participate in lung cancer advocacy.

There’s often a tendency to broaden discussions about diseases. After all, it’s far less scary to look at abstract numbers than the individuals they represent. That’s why sharing your story with elected officials is so powerful. But it’s also why what happens in Washington has ripple effects across the land.

Advocacy is national—and local.

Your story is powerful and so is how you tell it. Each year, Lung Cancer Voices Summit participants receive a briefing about the current Congress and GO2 for Lung Cancer’s legislative priorities, along with advocacy training on how to conduct an effective meeting using your own powerful story. The session includes peer-to-peer training through a state team breakout and a practice session on how to communicate messages around lung cancer personal stories.

And the skills you learn at the Lung Cancer Voices Summit don’t stay in Washington. Every lung cancer advocate takes home powerful new tools to raise awareness about lung cancer in their local community, county, and state. GO2 for Lung Cancer also offers additional resources online, including five steps for in-person meetings, tips for public speaking, advice for telling an impactful story, common legislative and advocacy terms, and more.

Lawmakers listen—and they share your stories.

Elected officials come to Washington to represent you. Telling your lung cancer story helps them connect emotionally with your journey and why you’re asking for more attention and federal funding for lung cancer. In turn, they and their staff often share constituent stories when talking with their colleagues in Washington and meeting with state and local officials at community town halls and other community-based events. Every story shared raises awareness, amplifies your voice and powerfully increases the overall focus on lung cancer.