Cancer Advocacy
Despite these challenges, both Christy and Tony gave their all for stomach cancer advocacy. A year after Tony’s diagnosis they co-founded a local chapter of Debbie’s Dream — the North Carolina East chapter.
That year, Christy, Tony and their then-12-year-old son Austin joined the Debbie’s Dream community for the non-profit’s first Advocacy Day at the U.S. Capitol. Together, they pushed for the U.S. Congress to increase the budget for the U.S. Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) and add stomach cancer to the growing list of cancer-research areas the program funded.
As part of a Boy Scouts merit badge, Austin had written Senator Richard Burr to ask him to support his dad’s fight against stomach cancer. The family got to meet the senator during the trip.
Christy and Tony returned for Advocacy Day in 2014. They were ecstatic to learn that stomach cancer would be added to the FY2015 PRCRP budget. Members of the military are exposed to hazardous environments due to the nature of their service and deployments. Adding stomach cancer was a recognition of exposure-related stomach cancer risks faced by service members.
Later that year, their Debbie’s Dream chapter hosted the first of many annual charity golf tournaments in Fayetteville the proceeds of which sponsor patients and caregivers to attend Advocacy Day to lobby for research funds.