LIVESTRONG and the National Cancer Collective Find Common Ground
8/21/2026 - In the cancer world, progress is often measured in research discoveries, new therapies, improved diagnostics and survival statistics. Yet another form of progress can be equally powerful: the decision to work together.
That spirit defined a recent meeting between representatives of LIVESTRONG and the newly formed National Cancer Collective (NCC)—a conversation that began as an introduction and quickly became an exploration of shared purpose, survivorship, advocacy, exercise oncology, education and collaboration.
Representing LIVESTRONG were Kristyn Arnold, Director of Mission and Impact and Elyse A. Bernal, Vice President, Mission and Philanthropy. Their participation brought both programmatic and advocacy perspectives into the discussion, creating an immediate bridge between LIVESTRONG’s national survivorship work and the collaborative mission being advanced by the NCC.
The National Cancer Collective was designed and co-architected by Lennard Goetze, CEO of Firefighters Against Cancers & Exposures and the New York Cancer Resource Alliance, alongside Cheri Ambrose of the Male Breast Cancer Global Alliance, with survivor-advocate Scott Baker serving as the NCC’s lead ambassador. Its founding premise is deliberately simple: cancer organizations can accomplish more when their knowledge, resources, audiences and advocacy strength are connected rather than isolated.
As Goetze summarized during the meeting, cancer is not conquered by one organization or one person: “It is won by a village.” The NCC was created to help build that village by encouraging organizations to learn from one another, share resources and pursue advocacy through collective thought and action.
That philosophy found immediate common ground with LIVESTRONG.
Scott Baker provided the human bridge between the organizations. Following his second stem-cell transplant in 2013, Baker entered the LIVESTRONG at the YMCA program in Saratoga Springs, New York. He subsequently became a mentor and estimates that he has interacted with nearly 500 people through the program—exercising beside them, sharing experiences and building community. During the meeting, he raised one particularly ambitious possibility: bringing advocates together to pursue a comprehensive survivorship bill.
His experience also illustrated a larger principle underlying the NCC: survivorship is strengthened when survivors become resources for one another. Baker recalled how people visited him while he was hospitalized and isolated, conversations that remained meaningful years later. His continued outreach to other people facing cancer is, in many respects, an act of paying that support forward.
“Sometimes the most powerful resource we can give another survivor is not an answer. It is our presence—and the assurance that they do not have to walk forward alone.”
A Shared Definition of Survivorship
Bernal described LIVESTRONG’s advocacy work as deeply rooted in survivorship and quality of life, including the needs of caregivers and the many challenges that continue after active treatment has ended. Her comments reinforced a concern shared by the NCC: too many people reach the end of treatment only to discover that the formal system of support suddenly becomes much quieter.
Arnold added the programmatic perspective, particularly in the area of exercise oncology. Her discussion demonstrated how LIVESTRONG has built multiple access points for survivors, including LIVESTRONG at the YMCA, CancerFit-certified professionals, virtual programming and approximately 250 free on-demand exercise videos. The approach recognizes that recovery is not linear and that people need options that reflect how they feel on any given day.
This resonated strongly with the NCC participants. The conversation advanced the idea that survivorship should be viewed as a continuum of cancer care beginning at diagnosis, rather than as a separate phase that begins only after treatment ends.
From Conversation to Collaboration
Several practical ideas emerged from the meeting.
Arnold offered to provide direct pathways to LIVESTRONG’s CancerFit video resources, search tools and exercise survey, while NCC participants discussed sharing those resources with their own communities. The organizations also explored reciprocal newsletter visibility, professional-network engagement and the possibility of continuing communication through LinkedIn and other digital channels.
Another exciting possibility involved the Male Breast Cancer Global Alliance’s developing Exercise Fest—a livestream and educational video initiative focused on movement and survivorship. The discussion opened the door to potentially connecting that concept with LIVESTRONG resources and expertise, while also examining how existing CancerFit content could complement rather than duplicate new programming.
That distinction matters. Collaboration does not require organizations to surrender their identities or reproduce one another’s work. It asks a better question:
“What do you already do extraordinarily well—and how can we help more people find it?”
That may ultimately be the most important outcome of the meeting.
The NCC is not being built to become another organization competing for space in an already crowded cancer landscape. Its larger opportunity is to become a connector of organizations, advocates, clinicians, educators, survivors and resources—a place where one group’s strength can become another community’s resource.
LIVESTRONG and the NCC share an important belief: survivorship is not passive. It involves movement, education, advocacy, connection, caregiving, policy and the restoration of quality of life. Most importantly, both recognize the extraordinary value of community.
The National Cancer Collective will continue reaching outward—to large national organizations, small community nonprofits, specialized cancer groups, survivor networks and emerging advocacy programs—with the same invitation:
Bring what you know. Share what you have learned. Tell us where the gaps remain. And let us discover what becomes possible when we work together.
Because solidarity is more than standing beside one another. Solidarity is turning many individual missions into collective momentum.
And as the National Cancer Collective continues to grow, that remains its commitment: to connect rather than compete, to share rather than isolate, and to keep building the village that no person facing cancer should ever have to live without.
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