We are all impacted in some way by the ongoing pandemic — and we need our elected officials, including Senators Tillis and Burr, to help keep us safe. While the direct and indirect effects of the virus may be different for each of us, we are all united in a desire to recover and move forward for a better tomorrow. As a breast cancer survivor, I can’t help but think about how the pandemic is impacting those walking the path of diagnosis and  treatment that I walked just a few years ago.

I think back to my own diagnosis and how quickly things moved from finding my lump to my biopsy to surgery. For many women it can be scary enough to seek care when you find a lump and now there are the added barriers of 1) weighing the risk of going to a hospital 2) whether the clinic or hospital even has enough staff, PPE (personal protective equipment) and the capacity to see you in light of emergency procedures and appointments taking precedence. It breaks my heart to think of the women currently awaiting testing and having to sit with that fear unable to take action.

Next, I think back to my treatment and how I was preparing for a mastectomy less than 4 weeks after my diagnosis. In my case, it was a relief to have an immediate plan to remove the cancer from my body. Having surgery first before chemotherapy gave me the time to freeze embryos resulting in more options for motherhood down the line.

Now doctors are forced to evaluate and prioritize care, which has resulted in many patients being asked to delay surgeries, change their care regimes and, in some cases, forgo fertility preservation altogether. I trust that doctors are doing the best they can in this unprecedented time, but I also recognize the emotional and mental ramifications on the patients seeking care for their cancer.

Many hospitals have had their surgeons, blood, beds and supplies redirected to emergency coronavirus efforts and have yet to receive the millions of tests, additional supplies and financial aid the Trump administration promised back in March.

In order to safely reopen communities, expand surgery capacity and return to some level of normalcy for those seeking cancer treatment, the North Carolina governor has noted in his phased reopening plan that we need to have supplies & tools to increase testing and tracing, and we need to have an increased supply of personal protective equipment for those on the front lines.

So how do we help?

We need to use our voices to hold the federal government accountable for the tests they promised and are now pretending are no longer needed. We need to demand that our elected officials, like Senators Burr and Tillis, are fighting tooth and nail to defend us. I hope we can get mass testing up and running quickly across the country to ensure doctors no longer have to prioritize care or fear for their own safety.

The disorganized and politicized approach at the federal level has left us lagging behind other countries, but I hope that together we can push for more accountability and a pathway forward focused on support and safety.   

Learn more about how you can share your story as a patient or healthcare worker and help the advocacy work Piedmont Rising is doing to support North Carolinians.

This post is sponsored by Piedmont Rising. All experiences and opinions are my own.