In September 2019, the International Psycho-oncology Society (IPOS) annual conference was held in Banff, Alberta with 4 days of talks, workshops, and presentations attracting >600 attendees from 50 different countries.
This was the 21st annual conference, but for the first time the conference was officially patients included: “committed to incorporating the experience of patients and experts in living their condition while ensuring that they are neither excluded nor exploited.” Five cancer survivors and care partners from across Canada were invited to provide vital input and perspective at the conference. The advocates had been awarded a scholarship to attend and were invited to participate in the full conference program with presentations from keynote speakers, poster sessions, and several breakout workshops. Many of them chose to attend different sessions related to their interests and advocacy.
Victoria J. Forster was one of these, myself being a 25-year survivor of childhood leukemia and I was privileged to be joined by 4 other advocates. In this essay, I want to introduce my fellow advocates and talk about our experience of the conference and how it has affected our advocacy in the months since those fall days in Banff in 2019.