For the last decade, Hannah Adams has traversed the halls of Congress with one mission: to increase federal investment in childhood cancer research.
The Birmingham grad student is a 16-year pediatric cancer survivor who’s turned a diagnosis into her life’s advocacy work. She spent part of last week in Washington, thanking members of Congress for their recently passed childhood cancer legislation and urging them to keep up the fight for children.
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“I think childhood cancer is something that everyone can get behind,” Adams told Alabama Daily News. “It’s not really a partisan issue. It’s our future, it’s our children and I think that that’s what’s really unique about this issue is that everyone knows someone who’s been impacted by cancer.”
Adams was 5 when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Nephroblastoma, a form of kidney cancer. She immediately endured chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.
“The most difficult part of it was just seeing part of my childhood taken away, like, my days of swimming with my friends, and playing with dolls with my sister, turned into sitting in a hospital room and losing my hair, and really wondering why this was happening to me,” she recounted.
After nine months of treatment, she was declared cancer-free and has spent much of her time since then as a “voice for other children currently fighting cancer, but also those who are no longer here.” She’s been traveling to Washington since she was 12, sharing her story and encouraging lawmakers to keep children impacted by cancer at the forefront of their legislative work.
On her most recent visit to the U.S. Capitol, she and advocates from across the country with the Alliance for Childhood Cancer shared their gratitude with members of Congress for getting the Give Kids a Chance Act signed into law in February, which aims to expand access to new treatments for pediatric cancer.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Alex Angle and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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