Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in a Congressional Briefing as part of the NCCR’s Cancer 101 and the Cancer Moonshot. Here are some photos from the (amazing) experience as well as video of the entire briefing. It’s a slog (not a brief briefing) but I must say that my fellow panelists were stellar and you may learn a thing or two. As for me, I simply did my best to represent the patient viewpoint.
Speakers appearing at the the National Coalition for Cancer Research Cancer 101 Congressional Briefing Series event: The Cancer Moonshot Initiative: New Frontiers in Cancer Exploration at Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, on Monday, April 25, 2016.
Left to right are Wendy K.D. Selig, President of National Coalition for Cancer Research, Sandra Horning, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and head of Global Product Development at Genentech, San Francisco, California, Michael B. Atkins, M.D., Deputy Director of Georgetown-Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate, and President of The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, event moderator, Richard L. Schilsky, M.D., FACP, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Linnea Olson, Lung Cancer Survivor, Participant in numerous clinical trials, Artist, Boston, Massachusetts; and Otis W. Brawley, M.D., FACP, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia, at right.
The roundtable discussion focused on President Obama’s “moonshot” Initiative to galvanize cancer research and patient communities to achieve 10 years of research in 5 years (Alan Lessig/)
(Alan Lessig/)
(Alan Lessig/)
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 
I just want to say thank you- to you Linnea, for being so brave, so proactive, and as always so inspiring!
Thank you Chrissy 🙂
Linnea
You are inspiring to so many. I can’t remember how i first encountered your blog, but i am always excired (and as a cancer survivor myself, i’m always relieved) to get a new blog entry from you. Yours is the only cancer blog i follow. I shsred you with a good friend whose husband out of the blue found out he had stage 4 aggressive prostate cancer. I told them that the point in fighting was to get to see your kids grow up. Marry and have babies. It is to enjoy life everyday while you can, and it is to hope a true cure comes along in time to help you. You onspired them, too. There is still life worth living after such a terrifying diagnosis. Thank you for sharing your journey. You are alwsys in my thoughts and prayers.
Nancy, thank you for your kind words and thoughts. Feeling connected to others is a big part of what keeps me going and I appreciate hearing from you. Big hugs.
Linnea