Being Nominated for a WEGO Health Award

In June, an email popped up with the subject line, "Congratulations, you've been nominated!" The first thing I thought was, nominated for what? Well, I was nominated in a category for the 10th Annual WEGO Health Awards.

One big happy family

I worked with WEGO Health in early 2020 doing a campaign raising awareness for a resource hub created for bladder cancer patients. I've done various other small content creation gigs over the last two years and developed a great relationship with the patient advocate team.

When WEGO and Health Union announced their partnership I was excited to have both of my advocacy platforms be one big happy family.

Being nominated for a WEGO Health Award

I was initially nominated for "Best in Show: Blog". Someone had taken notice of all my blogs and articles and made an anonymous nomination! Quickly I was nominated for other categories, but this was the one I was most excited for.

After nominations were submitted there was a round of voting and judging. I then found out I was a finalist! Out of hundreds of people I was one of six up for the actual award. The finalists in my category were amazing and had been doing patient advocacy for much longer than me so I wasn't confident in winning.

Although I did not win, the individual who did is amazing and so deserving of the award. Just being considered was a humbling experience.

Bringing awareness to bladder cancer

But what does me being nominated for an award have to do with bladder cancer? Well, it got hundreds of new eyes reading all about bladder cancer. When I tracked the analytics on all my social media channels I saw a huge increase in viewers, subscribers, and general web traffic.

The more eyes on bladder cancer stories mean there are more people learning about symptoms, seeing the disparity in screenings, and donating to help further research and education.

There were no other bladder cancer patients as a finalist in any other category so it was my voice that needed to shout and tell the judges and voters about our community.

What is the WEGO Health Awards?

The WEGO Health Awards is an incredible event that honors patient advocates who are taking the time between busy appointment schedules, treatment, and symptom management to tell their stories.

Patient advocacy is one of the best ways to tell the world about diseases, disabilities, and chronic illnesses because it puts a real human face on the diagnosis.

I want to thank the individuals who nominated and voted for me this year. Fingers crossed we can get a bladder cancer patient nominated and to the finals next year!