Cancer Moonshot

This is What We’re Thankful For

Team Cervivor has a lot to be thankful for this year! From an amazing Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in January to our Founder and Chief Visionary finding out she was becoming a mother through an exceptional gift to representing Cervivor at the World Cancer Congress in Switzerland to the opening remarks at the White House for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Roundtables launch. There is too much to count.

Where our community continues to grow quickly, we’ve been able to spread our collective wings and soar higher toward our mission of ending cervical cancer -all while supporting the members of this amazing community. This season represents togetherness and gratitude and we want to share what’s in our hearts and how you have been the center of our thankfulness. 

“I am thankful for the relationships that have been formed from one of the hardest aspects of all of our lives. It warms my heart so much to see people in our community going through a hard time to still show up for others. It’s what makes our community extra special.” – Tamika Felder, Cervivor Founder & Chief Visionary

“I am beyond grateful to be able to connect with and serve so many incredible people in the Cervivor community. It truly makes my job so much bigger than I could have ever imagined it to be.” – Morgan Newman, Cervivor Community Engagement Liaison

“I am thankful for the dedication, hard work, and effort that so many within our community make towards our collective goals!” – Heather Banks, Cervivor Lead Advocacy Educator

“I am grateful that our Cervivor community is full of compassionate people, from all over the globe, who never hesitate to uplift one another and that many have chosen to make their survivorship a beacon for change.” – Carol Lacey, Lead Cervivor Ambassador

“I’m grateful to this community because we are people woven together. We lean on one another, learn from one another, celebrate together, and grieve together.” – Patti Murillo-Casa, Cervivor Wellness Instructor for Survivor Slimdown and Co-Lead for Cervivor Español

“I am grateful for our Cervivor Community. The fact that we share with each other cultivates our relationships and our passion in ending cervical cancer. Each one of us is cog in this intricate machine that is advocating for our health. This is what I find beautiful and makes me feel grateful: we are not alone, and with that fact we can accomplish our mission.” – Karla Chavez, Cervivor Español Co-Lead

“I am forever grateful for our Cervivor community. The support and understanding allowed me to know that I am not alone. The education and empowerment has allowed me to be an advocate for myself and many others.” – Karen North, Cervivor Community Administrator

“I am grateful that I have cervical cancer sisters that understand my journey, they understand my lows and frustrations because they have been there. At times, as a cancer survivor, you can feel alone because people don’t ‘get you’. With the Cervivor community, I know that I am surrounded by women that understand me.” – Kimberly Williams, Cervivor Community Administrator

All of you strengthen our resolve to keep doing the work of bringing cervical cancer out from the shadows. Thank you for being a community of light for so many. The world is listening and together our voice is strong and steadfast in its resilience. We are Cervivor and ending cervical cancer is within our reach.

PRESS RELEASE: Cervivor Founder and Chief Visionary, Tamika Felder Invited to Share Opening Remarks for First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden and the American Cancer Society’s Launch of The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Roundtables

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In February 2022, the American Cancer Society announced they would be launching two national roundtables: one for cervical cancer and the other for breast cancer. This was a response to President Biden’s call to action in reducing cancer incidence and death rates faster. This initiative is to bring together leading organizations and experts in the cervical and breast cancer space to drive progress and improve the lives of cancer patients, as well as their families.

The objectives of the national roundtables align with the President’s Cancer Panel’s report Closing Gaps in Cancer Screening: Connecting People, Communities, and Systems to Improve Equity and Access. 

The report addresses the need to:

  • Improve and Align Communication: Develop effective communications about cancer screening that reach all populations; and expand and strengthen National Cancer Roundtables that include a focus on cancer screening.
  • Facilitate Equitable Access: Barriers contribute to lower rates of cancer screening initiation and the recommended follow-up observed among many populations in the United States; there is a need to provide and sustainably fund community-oriented outreach and support services to promote appropriate screening and follow-up care plus increase access to self-sampling for cancer screening.
  • Strengthen Workforce Collaborations: Team-based care has the potential to improve implementation of cancer screening but in order to accomplish this, supportive policies and a commitment to team-based care approaches are needed which include the empowerment of healthcare team members to support screening plus having the opportunity for training and residency programs; and expanding access to genetic testing and counseling for cancer risk assessments to catch cancer early.
  • Create effective health IT: Providers and patients alike are faced with more information than they can process in a reasonable amount of time. Health information technology (IT) has potential to help providers, patients, and healthcare systems quickly access and effectively use clinical knowledge and patient-specific data.

Cervivor Founder and Chief Visionary, Tamika Felder was invited to speak on behalf of cervical cancer patient advocates and their families to increase awareness, impact change, and work collectively towards eliminating cervical cancer. Tamika and Cervivor, Inc. have been long-standing influencers on the panel since 2003, helping to provide vision as well as patient stories. She shares, “For me it is personal. My legacy won’t be the lives that I bring into this world but the lives I will save.”

First Lady Jill Biden attends an American Cancer Society Roundtable event, Monday, October 24, 2022, in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Recording artist and cancer prevention advocate, Mary J. Blige shared the personal impact cancer has had on her family in recent years and why she has dedicated so much time to awareness. She phrases a key message, “I’ve dedicated time to making people understand their health is their wealth and urging them to make it a priority.”

American Cancer Society CEO, Dr. Karen Knudsen states, “We at the American Cancer Society represent all 1.9 million Americans that hear each year that they will have cancer and we are absolutely resonating with the goal of the Cancer Moonshot to end cancer as we know it.”

Dr. Karen Knudsen, Tamika Felder, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and Mary J. Blige

Dr. Knudsen also brings to light that breast cancer still remains to be the second leading cause of cancer death for women in this country and number one for Black and Latina women. 14,000+ women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and over 4,000 will die from the disease. Black and Latina women are again, impacted at nearly twice the rate as their Caucasian peers.

First Lady, Dr. Biden emphasizes there should be no woman left behind. There is an absolute need for collaborative efforts including the patient advocate voice because this impacts us all. The focus is to put patients and their families at the center of their cancer – from diagnosis to survivorship and we are rewriting the narrative of cancer.

“We don’t have to be afraid of cancer anymore!” 

First Lady Jill Biden bids farewell to singer Mary J. Blige, American Cancer Society CEO Dr. Karen Knudsen and cancer survivor Tamika Felder after an American Cancer Society Roundtable event, Monday, October 24, 2022, in the Red Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Erin Scott)

We stand with the First Lady, the American Cancer Society, and so many more leading organizations. We are committed to this mission as we are reminded of the daily impact in our community of a cervical cancer diagnosis, the treatment and difficulties in survivorship, and of those lives that have been lost from a preventable disease.  

Watch the full livestream recording here.