On September 19, LUNGevity participated in the 12th Annual Rally for Medical Research in Washington, DC. The Hill Day unites advocates from across the country and across the medical research advocacy community to urge Congress to continue making funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a national priority. Nearly 300 advocates from 32 states and DC met with more than 200 congressional offices. It was an amazing day, filled with passionate advocates and impactful stories. 
 
Advocate Lily Zhou of Washington State joined the event with support from LUNGevity. Under a travel scholarship that began in 2023, LUNGevity provides funds to help lung cancer advocates with travel and hotel expenses to participate in advocacy events such as the Rally for Medical Research. Lily’s father also participated in the advocacy training and Hill Day. 

After the event, Lily shared her thoughts about the experience as well as tips for those who are considering getting more involved in advocacy: 
 
My family has a history of cancer and lung cancer specifically. Despite being the leading cause of cancer-related deaths, lung cancer research is significantly underfunded, and this impacts not only my family, but hundreds of thousands of other individuals and families across the US. New treatments are saving lives, but time is truly of the essence; I want to advocate for increased lung cancer research funding in order to accelerate progress in this critical area. 
 
I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the 2024 Rally for Medical Research through LUNGevity. While it was my first time, I found myself immediately becoming part of a very strong and welcoming community of patients, family members, and professional advocates. Everyone was clearly passionate about their work and our shared goal of advocating for medical research at the Rally. I was inspired by the stories of other Rally participants, especially my fellow Washington representatives who I attended congressional meetings with. We were lucky to have met with receptive staffers who listened to our stories and were supportive of our efforts.  

The Rally as a whole was an incredibly rewarding experience and also eye-opening in introducing me to the advocacy community for medical research. Though my individual voice may be small, I have learned that, combined with the voices of many others, together we have the ability to make a difference. 

Overall, I hope that our advocacy efforts at the Rally will pressure Congress to allocate more funding for medical research at the NIH, which is necessary for medicine to continue advancing rapidly. Specifically, I hope to see increased funding in lung cancer research so that more and more effective treatments get developed and become accessible to patients. Moreover, I hope that more efforts will be invested into early detection to improve patient outcomes. About half of lung cancer patients are diagnosed at late stages, so I hope that through increased funding into early detection programs, patients with lung cancer will be diagnosed at earlier stages, when better treatment options exist. 

Although I am quite new to advocacy and still discovering much for myself, one piece of advice I do have is to step outside of your comfort zone and seek out opportunities. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to participate at the Rally, even though I was hesitant at first, because I encountered so many inspiring people and stories and learned so much about resilience, collaboration, and change-making. So, particularly for young people who are thinking about getting involved in advocacy, I want to stress that it is never too early or too late to start.  

Despite being one of the younger participants, I felt welcome in the community because everyone is connected by a shared passion and cause. At the Rally, I challenged myself to raise my voice for the issues I care about, and I learned that each individual can make a positive difference. So, I encourage those interested in advocacy to get started, whoever you are, wherever you are, whenever you are ready. 

For a long time, improvement in lung cancer treatment was slow and incremental. However, in the past couple of decades, we have witnessed incredibly significant progress and rapid innovation in this field. Once considered a miracle, living over ten years with advanced lung cancer is becoming less uncommon. While the pace of progress still needs to increase by many, many folds, medical research and advocacy offer hope in this regard.  

As funding into medical research increases, I hope that advances will as well. Through what I currently follow within lung cancer research, I am excited to see a surge of new ideas, technologies, and treatments emerging, and hope that these innovations come to fruition soon. I also know that, among lung cancer patients, family members, doctors, and advocates, there is a strong community pushing for further change. This is what gives me hope. 

Calls to Action:

• Send a message to your members of Congress! Research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), specifically the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has been the foundation for recent advances against lung cancer and many other types of cancer. To continue making progress, we need Congress to increase funding for the NIH and NCI. Ask your members of Congress to support NIH and NCI funding in FY 2025! 
• Sign up for updates! If you are interested in learning more about advocacy opportunities such as the Rally for Medical Research, be sure to sign up for updates from the LUNGevity Action Network! We share upcoming events and scholarship opportunities as well as ways that you can contact your legislators about priorities for the lung cancer community.