In late February, North juniors and childhood cancer survivors Ella Joy Won and Ireland Nolan traveled to Washington D.C. as a part of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer’s Action Days to share their stories with lawmakers and advocate for the support of cancer patients and their families.

Established in 2001, the Alliance for Childhood Cancer organization represents over 20 cancer patient advocacy groups and scientific organizations dedicated to supporting children with cancer and working toward legislation that improves their access to and quality of healthcare. 

Won and Nolan were selected to participate in the alliance’s trip by Camp OneStep, a group that offers year-round camp experiences for children with cancer and their families. 

“They pick a couple families each year to go on this trip,” said Won. “Both of us were picked in the process to go there.”

On Capitol Hill, the participants met with representatives for Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and Dick Durbin, as well as a congressional fellow for Tammy Duckworth. There, the two spoke about their experiences with cancer and expressed gratitude for recent pieces of legislation focused on childhood cancer, the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act and the Give Kids a Chance Act.

“Those acts addressed pediatric drug developments and access to the right care,” said Nolan. 

The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act specifically makes it easier for children with complicated medical conditions to seek care across state lines quickly and easily. Seeking care in outside states previously involved time-consuming processes that delayed the ability to access that help, and this new act aimed to cut through that red tape. Won, who experienced having to move to another state to access necessary treatment, emphasizes the importance of making the process less complicated.

“I’m a two-time cancer survivor, and the second time we crossed state lines and temporarily moved to Seattle for better treatment there,” said Won. “Being able to go across state borders to access better care, I [am] able to be in the place that I am today, so that was one of the big parts that I was talking about at the Capitol. … The fact that they passed that [act] was even more of a reason to thank them for that.”

The two also spoke on increasing funding toward research on cancer treatments.  

“We were advocating for increased funds and to just help with child cancer research for treatments to avoid long life or life long complications, because most treatments that they use are medications that were created for adults, which have more toxic chemicals affecting the bodies overall throughout life,” said Nolan. 

Outside of meeting with lawmakers, the two visited other notable locations in the district. 

“We did get to see a lot of memorials, and it was really just amazing to be able to experience them in person, especially because of older historical significance, and especially knowing the background behind that, it just makes them so much more meaningful to see in person,” said Won.

They even got the chance to ride in the private underground subway system beneath the Capitol, which lawmakers often use to travel between the House and Senate chamber and nearby office buildings. 

“Another thing that we got to do was use the private subway that they had in the Capitol,” said Nolan. “That was actually really fun.”

Won and Nolan are grateful for the opportunity to share their stories and work toward legislative change, as well as connect with others who have had similar experiences and share a similar goal.

“It was just kind of inspiring to see that they’re giving us this chance, or we’re able to be given this opportunity to really advocate and share our stories. And just the fact that all of this is going towards real policy change, that really stuck with me,” said Won. “Being able to meet all these other people who have gone through different kinds of treatments and are advocating for the same thing, it’s definitely really inspiring for me.” 

Both advocates intend to keep sharing their stories and advocating for better funding, resources and legislation for cancer patients.

“After that [trip], I was like, ‘I need to do more. I want to do more to help with this cause,’” said Nolan.