February 6, 2023 – It seems inevitable that 33-year-old childhood cancer survivor Maggie Rogers will someday pursue a profession that's one way or the other related to cancer.
She achieved this goal just a few weeks ago when she began her work as head of the kid, youth and young adult cancer services in American Cancer SocietyHer responsibilities are broad and include leading this system initiatives, projects and activities related to childhood and young adult cancer. She will even be answerable for raising funds from partner groups and stakeholders equivalent to other nonprofit organizations and corporations.
Her decision to enter the universe of Cancer took a while.
“As a child, cancer was part of my identity,” says Rogers, who was diagnosed with stage III kidney cancer at age 4 and remembers being bald in kindergarten from her intense chemotherapy treatments. “But working in the cancer field and having it myself seemed too close to home at first.”
With a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in public health and epidemiology, she pursued health-related careers, which led to her previous work on the Centre for the Promotion of Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, where she has worked for the past 8 years.
During her time there, her profession goals began to vary as she wondered how she could higher help patients herself.
“My job at CAPC had nothing to do with the impact we had on the patients themselves, as our primary audience was healthcare professionals who cared for patients,” she says. “I thought I would be more interested in a position where I could have a much more direct impact on patients.”
As she became involved in patient groups and conversations on Twitter, she also began to feel more comfortable with the potential of moving into oncology.
“I started to become more comfortable with the concept of patient advocacy and knew I was in a unique position,” she says. “I started tweeting about my personal cancer experience and how it related to our health care system.”
About 18 months ago, she did something else that was very fulfilling: she joined the Patient Advocacy Committee Pediatric Oncology Groupthe world's largest organization dedicated exclusively to childhood cancer research and supported by the National Cancer Institute.
“It puts me in a space where people are talking about clinical trials and how they are designed. My role is to give patients a voice and ask questions like, 'What is the impact of this trial on fertility?'” she explains.
Through this work, she realized that she could be able to do something meaningful in the sector of cancer.
“I realized that I could be in a room talking about children with cancer and I would be fine,” she says.
The proven fact that the American Cancer Society's first Chief Patient Officer was someone Rogers had worked with throughout her profession made her decision to use for the position easy.
“This job suits me perfectly,” she says. “It combines my education, my personal experiences and my professional experience in one.”
One of probably the most beautiful elements for Rogers: The feeling of not being alone.
“My personal experience shapes a lot of my work, but at the American Cancer Society, everyone is so open about loved ones who have died of cancer,” she says. “This is so different from my last job.”
In fact, Rogers says she often hid the proven fact that she had cancer as a baby from her colleagues.
“Then someone outed me and the people in the office cried,” she says. “It was uncomfortable for a while. I'm so glad that in this job I'm not the token voice for cancer.”