patient

Diagnosed with neuroblastoma before her first birthday, she set up a lemonade stand at four to raise money for her hospital. By her death at eight in 2004 it had raised $1 million; the foundation in her name has raised hundreds of millions since.

The American Cancer Society is the largest US cancer charity. It publishes the annual US cancer statistics that most news reports quote, screening recommendations that differ from the US Preventive Services Task Force in places (colorectal screening from 45, for example), and plain-language patient guides for every cancer.

Her 2013 New York Times essay about carrying a BRCA1 mutation and choosing preventive mastectomy roughly doubled referrals for hereditary cancer testing in several countries: the "Angelina Jolie effect".

In 2014 his parents took him from a British hospital to seek proton beam therapy for a brain tumour abroad, were arrested, then vindicated. The case sped the building of NHS proton centres.

After a mastectomy in 1978 she wrote The Cancer Journals, refusing a prosthesis and the expectation that women hide their cancer. The book became a founding text of patient writing.

In 1992 she was the first patient with recurrent HER2-positive breast cancer to be treated with the antibody that became Herceptin, in Dennis Slamon's trial at UCLA. She became its first long-term survivor.

Weeks after becoming First Lady in 1974 she had a mastectomy and, unusually for the time, said so publicly. Clinics recorded a surge of women coming for breast examinations.

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation's weekly blog explains new breast cancer research findings and drug approvals in plain terms for a general audience, and reports on the research the foundation funds. It is free, and it bridges the research literature and patient-facing news.

A retired railway engineer from Oregon with chronic myeloid leukaemia, he was the first person to take the drug that became Gleevec, in June 1998, after reading about Brian Druker's research in a newspaper.

Cancer Research UK's About Cancer pages give clear UK patient information, including NHS treatment pathways.

He made Black Panther and other films while being treated for colon cancer, which he kept private. His death at 43 in 2020 forced attention on rising colorectal cancer in young adults and its heavier toll on Black Americans.

Diagnosed with bowel cancer at 35, she spent five years telling people to check their poo, co-hosted the BBC's You, Me and the Big C, and raised over £11 million for Cancer Research UK in the weeks before her death in 2022.

Treated for prostate cancer from 1992, he gave MIT $100 million in 2007 to build an institute that puts engineers and cancer biologists under one roof, and MSK $150 million in 2015 for a new outpatient cancer building.

Her 2007 melanoma diagnosis led her and her husband Leon to found the Melanoma Research Alliance, now the largest private funder of melanoma research.

A 12-year-old lymphoma patient of Sidney Farber whose 1948 radio broadcast launched the Jimmy Fund, which has funded Dana-Farber for more than 75 years.

The first child treated with CAR-T cells, in 2012. Her recovery from relapsed leukaemia turned an experimental idea into an approved therapy.

A breast cancer survivor and Estée Lauder executive who co-created the pink ribbon in 1992 and founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1993, now one of the largest private funders of breast cancer research.

A lawyer treated for breast cancer in 1987 who built the National Breast Cancer Coalition and won the Department of Defense breast cancer programme, the first to put trained patient advocates on scientific review panels.

The Saturday Night Live star wrote about her ovarian cancer in It's Always Something and died at 42 in 1989. Her name lives on in Gilda's Club and the familial ovarian cancer registry at Roswell Park.

Her cervical cancer cells, taken in 1951 without her knowledge, became HeLa, the first immortal human cell line. Her story changed how consent and family rights in research are handled.

A reality-television star whose cervical cancer and death at 27 in 2009 were followed by hundreds of thousands of extra cervical screening tests in England: the "Jade Goody effect".

Dying of metastatic cancer, he told an audience in 1993, "Don't give up, don't ever give up," and announced a foundation that has since granted hundreds of millions of dollars to cancer research.

A chemicals billionaire treated for cancer several times, he and his wife Karen founded Huntsman Cancer Institute in 1995 and their family gave more than $400 million to build its research institute and hospital.

A geriatrician with a rare sarcoma who noticed that the staff treating her did not introduce themselves. Her 2013 campaign, #hellomynameis, was adopted by hundreds of thousands of health workers.

After her husband died of colon cancer at 42, she had a colonoscopy live on national television in 2000. Screening rates rose measurably afterwards: the "Couric effect".

Diagnosed with incurable breast cancer at 23 after her symptoms were dismissed, she founded CoppaFeel! in 2009 to teach young people to check their chests. She lived with the disease for fifteen years.

Treated in 1996 for testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain, he founded the foundation that made survivorship a public cause and sold 80 million yellow wristbands. His doping and its exposure in 2012 complicate the legacy.

Congress results translated for people with breast cancer, fast and accurately.

Macmillan Cancer Support covers the practical side of cancer: money, work, coping, and where to get help.

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1998 at 51, he set up a foundation that awarded ten $100,000 grants in its first year and became the largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research; he died in 1999.

Diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in 1993, the financier founded the Prostate Cancer Foundation, whose grants helped pay for the science behind abiraterone and enzalutamide and built a network of precision oncology centres for US veterans.

PanCAN is the leading pancreatic cancer patient organisation; it pioneered free tumour molecular profiling for patients (Know Your Tumor) and runs an adaptive platform trial for a disease with few options.

A computer scientist with terminal pancreatic cancer who gave a lecture in 2007 on achieving childhood dreams. Tens of millions watched it, and he testified to Congress for pancreatic cancer research funding before he died at 47.

A two-year-old with acute leukaemia treated by Sidney Farber with the folate antagonist aminopterin from December 1947. His temporary remission, reported in 1948, was the first evidence that a drug could turn back leukaemia.

Diagnosed in 1974, she refused the standard practice of biopsy and mastectomy under one anaesthetic without the patient's say. Her campaign made the two-step procedure and informed choice the norm.

Diagnosed with metastatic melanoma at 22, she received the anti-CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab in an early trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering and has been cancer-free since. Her meeting with James Allison in 2006 is part of immunotherapy's history.

The GitLab co-founder who kept working and writing in public through osteosarcoma treatment, showing what living with a rare bone cancer looks like from the inside.

Britain's most decorated Olympic cyclist made his stage 4 prostate cancer public in 2024 and founded Tour de 4, a mass ride that shows people can live well with advanced cancer and has raised more than £2.7 million for cancer charities.

Diagnosed with bowel cancer at 15, he turned his final years into a public campaign that raised more than £5 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust before he died at 19.

Diagnosed in 2003 with a rare, slow-growing pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour, he put off surgery for about nine months while trying diet and alternative approaches. His case is the standard example in discussions of delay and unproven therapies.

Her Breast Book gave women the information to question their surgeons; she co-founded the National Breast Cancer Coalition and in 2008 recruited hundreds of thousands of women into research through the Army of Women.

After losing a leg to bone cancer at 18, he set out in 1980 to run across Canada for cancer research. He covered 5,373 km before the disease returned; the run he started has raised over C$850 million.

The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation runs a free site with information written for this subtype, a helpline staffed by oncology social workers, support groups, webinars and clinical trial listings. It is the dedicated patient resource for a subtype that general breast cancer sites cover only in passing.