Cancer research has changed my life in very fundamental ways over the last 30-plus years.
It started, as it does for many people, with a personal experience. In my case, it was my wife in her early 30s being diagnosed with a rare cancer.
At first, we struggled to find the right diagnosis and the right treatment. Eventually we did, and it worked.
She got 12 years of life – much longer than would ever have been expected in the beginning. She got to see our children grow up. She got to teach hundreds of other children. But eventually, the treatments didn’t work anymore. And she died after 12 years.
The experience changed me at a very personal level. So, I changed careers and started to get heavily involved with cancer charities, eventually becoming the President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society.
Raising money for research, advocating for research, participating in some very strong, rigorous processes by which research was assessed and funded – it let me see firsthand that what we were doing wasn’t just for one family. It was for many. It was impacting Canadians. It was impacting people all over the world.
When I came to the end of my term at Canadian Cancer Society, I wanted to continue doing just that. One of the things that stuck with me in the early days is the very specialized knowledge my wife had benefited from.
Both her oncologists had died before she did, and with them most of the knowledge about those rare cancers disappeared. It left me with an enduring sense that we have to make sure that knowledge is shared, it’s available, and it can be analyzed and used broadly.
That led me to help create a thing called the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, which has the express purpose to bring genomic knowledge closer to patients in a way that can impact real care for all citizens of the world.
Peter Goodhand is a leader in the global health sector, holding senior executive and board member positions in the health research advancement community. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH).