WCLC Sept 2021 | Jill Feldman’s involvement in lung cancer research advocacy

So my name is Jill Feldman and I got involved in lung cancer advocacy, actually long before I was diagnosed with the disease. When I was 13, I lost two grandparents to lung cancer and six months after that, my dad died of lung cancer. Then when I was in my 20s, both my mom and her sister, my close aunt DeeDee died of lung cancer. At the time, needless to say, I was devastated and wanted to find a way to confront this disease that had crushed my family, but back in 2000, there weren’t any lung cancer events. There weren’t any support groups. There weren’t any organizations. In fact, there was no lung cancer community at all.

Coincidence or fate, the first organization in the country dedicated exclusively to lung cancer research, Longevity Foundation, was founded in my community and I got involved. I did what I could to advocate and educate myself. While doing so, in 2009, I was diagnosed with lung cancer at 39-years-old. My kids were 6, 8, 10, and 12. Their only association with the disease was death. They were scared and my worst nightmare was coming true. I was following in my family’s footsteps and there still wasn’t any promising research that convinced me my path would be different. That was about the time that research was moving in the right direction, but rather slowly. My focus and advocacy really started in the research area at that point. I still do advocacy in every area, but I definitely focus on research advocacy.