Recording: Effecting Change: From Advocacy to Lobbying

Recorded on November 1, 2024 The webinar focused on how to effect change for cancer care and policy in Canada. Two important elements of change are advocacy and lobbying. While advocacy drives leaders, grassroots movements, public awareness and support, and efforts to lobby the governments, lobbying requires a professional approach to influence governments so that they can relocate resources, and prioritize or develop public policies. In this webinar, speakers talked about their motivation to advocate, and the practical and theoretical aspects of both the advocacy and lobbying on cancer. Featured Panelists: Dylan Buskermolen, is a Public Speaker & Health Advocate; Canadian Cancer Society – Advocacy team Dylan is a Sr. Advocacy Specialist at the Canadian Cancer Society, Public Speaker, and three-time cancer survivor. After his first of three diagnoses of Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2017, Dylan was committed to improving cancer care for patients and their families across Canada through advocacy and public speaking. Don Desserud, PhD. University of Prince Edward Island; CAPO Advocacy Committee Don Desserud has a PhD in Political Science and specializes in the study of Canadian politics. In 2015, he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and underwent six months of chemotherapy but has shown “no clinical signs of recurrence” since 2016. Kimberley Thibodeau, MSW, CFT. CUSM/MUHC Psychosocial Oncology Program; CAPO Advocacy Committee Sevtap Savas, PhD. Memorial University of Newfoundland; CAPO Advocacy Committee Sevtap Savas, PhD., is a professor of Oncology and Genetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland; Chair of the CAPO Advocacy Committee; Lead of the Public Interest Group on Cancer Research (NL) as well as the Atlantic Cancer Consortium Patient Advisory Committee, and a patient advocate.