MY LIFE Matters - Spring 2022 - Cover4

Health Equity Advocacy and Leadership
Hill Day Event Highlights
At Tigerlily's 8th Annual Young Women's Breast Health Day on the Hill, we will facilitate conversations with members of congress,
staffers, advocates, patients, healthcare providers, national/local healthcare leaders, media, and community activists about
survivorship care plans. It is our mission to advance partnerships, tools, content, messages, and methods to increase access to
survivorship care plans. Together, we are mobilizing a network of diverse advocates and experts to champion survivorship studies
and programs across Federal agencies to engage in a coordinated effort to improve the health and quality of life of survivors.
A Few Reasons Why This Is So Important
* A cancer survivor is any individual with a history of cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the rest of their life.
* Approximately 17 million Americans are cancer survivors by 2030, there will be approximately 22 million.
* Survivors face difficult physical, emotional, psychosocial, and neurological challenges that persist beyond diagnosis
and the start of treatment, arising months and years after cancer treatment.
* BIPOC survivors have significantly lower health-related quality of life measures compared to their White counterparts.
Thank you to everyone who participated in Tigerlily Foundations 8th Annual Young
Women's Breast Health Day on the Hill that took place on April 28th.
Tigerlily Foundation has a 16-year history in the policy landscape. Our goal has always been to advocate for impact by
driving policy making to create equity for patients. Tigerlily Foundation's Young Women's Breast Health Day on the Hill
(YWBHD) was first held in 2009 to create additional advocacy and awareness about the issues young breast cancer
survivors faced. Through Tigerlily's HEAL Policy COE, we plan to further focus this work by educating, empowering, and
lifting patient voices to ensure they are amplified. In order to achieve health equity and end disparities.
At the age of 17, I became a breast cancer advocate. It was through being
a caregiver for my mom as she fought this disease that I experienced the
devastating impacts and disparities of a breast cancer diagnosis. But
through those experiences, I have also seen firsthand the incredible
changes we can make when we come together and lead with the patient
experience and voice. I continue this work in honor of my mom and am
truly honored to serve in this role for the HEAL Policy Center.
Lizzie Wittig
Director, National Programs &
HEAL Policy Center of Excellence
To learn more about the HEAL Policy Center of Excellence and join the events and efforts we have underway to
improve the health and quality of life of survivors, go to
https://www.tigerlilyfoundation.org/programs/heal-policy-center-of-excellence/
or email us at HEAL@tigerlilyfoundation.org

https://www.tigerlilyfoundation.org/heal-policy-center-of-excellence/

MY LIFE Matters - Spring 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MY LIFE Matters - Spring 2022