Meet Mike Lawing, Cancer Navigator, Health Advocate

Joyce talks with Mike Lawing, a colleague and friend through patient advocacy work.  Mike is a delightful guy with a rich Southern drawl.

Mike Lawing was diagnosed with kidney cancer 15 years ago.  He has spent those years taking good care of his own health, and has also become very involved with cancer survivorship and advocacy for patients and their caregivers in a number of ways. He frequently challenges the newly diagnosed and their families that he encounters with a statement by Dr. Norman Cousins; “Don’t deny the diagnosis; try to defy the outcome.”

Mike serves as the Moderator of the Kidney Cancer Forum hosted by the Kidney Cancer Association (www.kidneycancer.org) and is a Patient Advocate Liaison at their annual International Kidney Cancer Symposiums in Chicago. He is the Coordinator of the 2011 Survivor Project.  The resulting book We Have Kidney Cancer: Survivors Stories is a companion publication to the KCA’s multi-language reference book We Have Kidney Cancer. Both publications are available in a print edition and a Kindle edition from Amazon.com and as a PDF download at the KCA’s website.

Lawing is a member of the Patient Advocacy Advisory Board of Novartis Oncology; serves as a Consumer Reviewer for the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program for colon, kidney and genetic cancers, is an affiliate member of the American Association for Cancer Research and is an alumnus of their Scientist<>Survivor Program. He is a member of the North Carolina Oncology Navigator Association, the North Carolina Comprehensive Cancer Program, a facilitator for Survivin’; a cancer and caregiver support group at the Rutherford Regional Cancer Outreach Center, and is involved with several other cancer support groups in North Carolina.