I have had the pleasure of sending a letter to the Honorable Dr. Andrew Furey, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, to advocate on behalf of the individuals, families, and communities affected by cancer.
The most recent report by the Canadian Cancer Society on the financial impact of cancer, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the governments of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador gave me the idea of this advocacy letter.
You can download, revise, and use this letter to reach out to your elected officials.
Carey Majid, KC. Executive Director of NL Human Rights Commission:
Sevtap Savas, PhD. Cancer scientist and advocate:
We thank the event organizers (Krista King, Sevtap Savas), all speakers and participants, event funder (Office of Public Engagement – Memorial University) and supporter (NLSUPPORT).
Both in-person and virtual participation options are available
Location: Virtual (link to be sent upon registration) OR Faculty of Medicine, New Medical Education Building (also called “glass building”), 1st floor, Room 1M102
Event organized by Krista King at Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with the NL Human Rights Commission.
Free Parking: Lot 30 (outside of medical school) and parking garage (level 2) from 9 am-2 PM
Speakers include those with lived experience, researchers, and the executive director of the NL Human Right Commission. Please see the current schedule below.
We are excited to share with you our new scholarly (peer reviewed) article just published in Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice!
In this manuscript, we worked on understanding public engagement needs and opportunities when it comes to cancer in Newfoundland and Labrador. We also developed recommendations for both our group and external stakeholders.
For example, we collated information about which topics on cancer are relevant, or an interest to public members. We developed plans to diversify our collaborations and improve the public outreach activities in the province. We followed some of these plans as well.
This project was co-led by a public member, John King and a scientist, Sevtap Savas.
We thank our Group members, public members who shared their thoughts with us, our funder (Office of Public Engagement) and supporters (NLSUPPORT) at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
On behalf of the Public Interest Group on Cancer Research, Sevtap Savas, St. John’s.
We were pleased to have two special podcast episodes in September and October with Tracy Slaney and Heather Mulligan.
Tracy Slaney is an amazing advocate and caregiver in Newfoundland and Labrador. Heather Mulligan is from Canadian Cancer Society Advocacy unit in Atlantic Canada.
We have had cozy and very informative chats about what it means to be an advocate, and how organizations like Canadian Cancer Society are helping with advocating/lobbying the governments for change. One recent example is extension of unpaid sick leave and job protection in Nova Scotia.
We hope to see similar changes in other Atlantic Canada provinces, including Newfoundland and Labrador.
You can find our special podcast episodes here:
Episode 15 (special episode) – A heartwarming story of cancer advocacy and caregiving by Tracy Slaney:
In this last episode of our Season I, we talked with Mike Kehoe, a community member and person with a lived experience of prostate cancer. Mike shared not only his experience with us, but also his positive and empowering messages.
We are grateful that he took his time to converse with us.
Take a look:
We hope to be back with Season II next year, pending funding. We really enjoyed this experience, having wonderful guests and co-hosts, and learning from each other. Hope you will find time to listen to our podcast and perhaps be a guest in one of them in the future.
Our condolences to Robin’s family, friends, and the cancer community in Canada and beyond. Robin passed away from colorectal cancer in June 2024 after 14 years living with it . She was a fierce advocate and change-maker.
In this episode we talked with Robin and Hope Gillis about cancer, advocacy and coaching. It is one of a kind episode and hearing Robin speaks makes us even more determined to keep going. We have gigantic shoes to fill.
We are very excited to air this informative and fascinating podcast with Ashley Dicker on Indigenous Patient Navigator Program available in Newfoundland and Labrador.
This program is designed to support Indigenous persons traveling for medical care in the province. Six Indigenous Patient Navigators in the province provide all bunch of services and support, making sure the Indigenous patients will be cared best and will feel at home while they are away from home.
This is one of the coziest and most fun chat we have had folks – take a look at it 🙂
In this episode, Tracy and myself (Sevtap) chat about colon cancer, lived experience as a caregiver, advocacy, rising funds and rising awareness about screening tests, and the Push For Your Tush fundraisings event organized by Tracy and Colon Cancer Canada in three cities in Newfoundland and Labrador in June and July.
These are community events that aim to bring folks and families together. You can walk with them, say hi, or make a donation to support their causes.
In this episode, we continued our conversation with James Moriarty about his experiences of being a trans man with a history of cancer in an organ associated with female sex assigned at birth (you can find PART I here).
Dr. Neveu, who cares for a few trans persons with cancer in Newfoundland and Labrador, provides unique insights into how her cancer care practice looks like.
There is a lot to learn – please take a look at our latest podcast:
