Congratulations to the Women Survivors Alliance on their first ever National Women’s Survivors Convention – September 22-24, 2013.
There are more than 7 million women cancer survivors in the United States who traveled the journey from healthy lives through cancer diagnoses and treatment. But their lives will forever be altered. Cancer therapies are not without consequence and survivors must address the long-term and life limiting effects of treatments including physical, emotional, psychological, sexual, legal and financial challenges and issues. And most health care providers don’t have the necessary resources available to offer much meaningful support.
That’s why the Women Survivors Alliance (WSA) has undertaken a national call to action to relieve the burdens of survivorship issues on women, their families, and by extension, society as a whole. The alliance was created to establish a network where women affected by cancer can find their voice, improve their quality of life, embrace their new normal, and help others.
Survivorship, and the recognition of the many challenges survivors will face following treatment, is becoming a cutting-edge issue in the world of cancer. In fact, the Commission on Cancer (a part of the American College of Surgeons) has recently mandated that all cancer care facilities must have survivorship care plans in place by 2014 in order to receive accreditation and funding. National awareness of this issue is growing rapidly. To that end, the Alliance is hosting first ever National Women’s Survivors Convention with speakers such as Teresa K. Woodruff, Matthew Zachary, and other.