I saw a couple posts about the idea of one of the

I saw a couple posts about the idea of one of the survivors of the mTNBC study attending and speaking about their experience, and I wanted to share a real example of that sort of thing happening.

(in the case of ESMO, I don't believe they would invite anyone just to stand there for a poster presentation, by the way. It's not a great use of what is otherwise a fantastic first hand experience the world could benefit from hearing)

Back when I was part of a company launching an overactive bladder medication, the second most exciting disease state to talk about with friends behind genital warts, we had a big launch event in Florida where the entire company met for what amounted to mostly teambuilding and rah-rah'ing. At the end of the week we had a final session where Dick Vitale gave a great speech about never giving up, citing his buddy Jim Valvano's story of course. But we also had a session where someone who suffered from overactive bladder (a case of the tinkles if you want to use the scientific term) spoke to the entire salesforce about her struggles dealing with the condition. For that particular issue, there's a lot of stigma and embarrassing moments involved. She would find herself in the car toting her kids and their friends around and realize she had about 45 seconds before there'd be an accident, having to figure out how to take care of business (medical term) without making her kids become the butt of jokes the rest of their lives. It was really impactful to hear from someone like that.

But that's a better use of a successful study participant or user of the medication than having them attend a poster session. Long story short, that kind of thing can and does happen, but you do need to be careful how and where you implement it.

Both sides are right. Touch gloves and back to your corners.