Guest Post: You Can Be an Advocate (Or Not!)
Guest blogger Riley Stock is a 24-year-old college graduate, special education teacher, and cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma at six weeks old and declared NED (No Evidence of Disease) in December of 1999.
Riley lives life with a strong spirit of activism and a passion for childhood cancer funding and awareness. She’s worked with charities like Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and served on the leadership teams for Be the Match and Love Your Melon in college. Riley received a bachelor’s degree in Child Professional Services from Texas A&M and is a special education teacher in elementary school.
An Identity Beyond Survivorship
As cancer survivors, we have a unique ability to be advocates for childhood cancer awareness, research, and funding – all from a very personal and real connection to the cause. We know the cancer world just a little too closely. Lots of our hardships can be fuel for our advocacy. The fiery passion we hold for childhood cancer is a force not to be messed with.
From the second we’re aware of our survivorship, we do everything we can in the spirit of advocacy. Based on my own life, I’ve known since age five that I wanted to be a doctor to “help kids get better like I did.” It drove my volunteer hours, high school elective credits, college major, and everything in between.
It consumed me. I had to give back. I volunteered with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Love Your Melon, Be the Match, and many many other organizations. I am an advocate through and through.
You read articles like “Cancer Patient Returns To Hospital That Saved Her Life As An Oncology Nurse” and think about how cool and full circle of an experience that must be. There are hundreds of headlines such as these. I’m not saying that these are bad things, because in all honesty they are quite remarkable achievements. Survivors who are able to tackle these huge obstacles *should* be celebrated.
However, I feel like there’s an unspoken narrative that childhood cancer survivors are set on this trajectory of advocacy, medical practice, or motivational speaking. No one tells us we have to be anything, yet we feel like we owe it for our survivorship. Where do we get this from? Survivor guilt? Is it because it’s all we know? In reality, this isn’t accessible to all survivors. Whether we have physical limitations, emotional triggers, or PTSD, this type of work or volunteering can be very difficult.
Truth is, we can be anything we want to be. Some survivors cling to advocacy work, and some run as far away as possible.
Learning to let go of survivorship as my sole identity is the hardest thing I’ve ever learned (or un-learned). I’m slowly learning I don’t have to get myself involved just because of my history. I can be someone in addition to my survivorship. I can be anyone.
Are we resilient fighters who are defying all odds against us? Of course we are – but we can succeed in art, teaching, business, parenting, etc. without devoting ourselves fully to the cause of cancer advocacy if we don’t want to.
Whatever we choose to do should be celebrated, as it is a victory in itself.
Editor’s Note: If cancer advocacy is something you're interested in, we’ve got another blog post with 10 ways that you can advocate for childhood cancer this spring.