06/12/2026
Roe Roe Goes to Washington 🎗️💛
A few years ago, our family had one goal: help our daughter survive cancer.
What we didn’t expect was having to fight our insurance company at the same time.
During Roe Roe’s 858 days of treatment, chemotherapy claims were denied again and again. While she battled cancer, we battled paperwork, phone calls, denials, and appeals.
We learned something every family should know:
A denial is not the end of the story.
With the help of Roe Roe’s incredible medical team at Brenner Children’s, we kept fighting until our insurance company finally covered the care she needed.
But many families never get that outcome.
Some don’t know they can appeal. Others are simply too exhausted, overwhelmed, and scared to keep fighting while their child is fighting for their life. Sadly, that can be exactly what insurance companies are counting on.
That has to change.
This past week, we had the incredible honor of taking Roe Roe’s story to Capitol Hill for Family Advocacy Day, alongside families from children’s hospitals across the country.
We shared what it’s really like to hear the words, “Your child has cancer,” and then face not only a medical crisis but a financial one as well.
When a child is diagnosed, life doesn’t stop. The mortgage is still due. Yet many parents are forced to reduce their hours—or leave their jobs entirely—to become full-time caregivers.
We also shared the mission of Roe Roe’s Heroes and the urgent need for more childhood cancer research. Although childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children, only about 4% of federal cancer research funding is dedicated to it.
Children deserve better.
We need more funding to develop safer, more effective treatments.
We need more researchers searching for cures.
We need more doctors entering pediatric specialties, where workforce shortages continue to grow.
And we need insurance reform that helps families fight cancer—not fight for care.
We advocated for:
🎗️ More childhood cancer research funding
💛 Better access to healthcare for children
🎗️ Insurance reforms that put patients first
💛 Support for families facing the financial burden of cancer
🎗️ More pediatric specialists, oncologists, and researchers
One thing became crystal clear:
Childhood cancer isn’t political.
Cancer doesn’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, and no parent should have to fight an insurance company while fighting to save their child’s life.
We’re grateful to Atrium Health Levine Children’s Brenner Children’s, Brenner President Alisa Starbuck, and the Children’s Hospital Association for giving us a seat at the table to share our story. We also appreciate the staff of North Carolina’s congressional delegation for taking the time to listen to our story.
If sharing Roe Roe’s journey helps bring more research, better healthcare, and less suffering for the families who come after us, every conversation in Washington was worth it. 💛
💛 Please share this post.
For every child battling cancer today.
And for every family who will hear those words tomorrow.
