Cancer research gave my daughter what my mom never had

In 2021, my daughter was diagnosed with a grade 3 astrocytoma, a serious form of brain cancer. No mother is prepared to hear that her child has brain cancer.

My daughter was a 32 year old mother  raising two little boys who needed her. Her diagnosis suddenly threatened the future she had imagined for herself and her family.

Five years later, we are profoundly grateful that her cancer remains stable, with no evidence that it is progressing. She continues to receive care and live with the uncertainty that follows a cancer diagnosis. She is also raising her sons, making memories and finding joy in the ordinary moments of family life. She says that focusing on the little things—and on being a good mother to her boys — has helped carry her through.

Her story is part of a larger story spanning three generations of our family.

In 1977, my mom — my daughter’s grandmother — was diagnosed with cancer. She was only 41.

Cancer treatment in the 1970s was unforgiving. Chemotherapy was powerful, indiscriminate and agonizing. For ten months, our family watched my mom lose her hair, her appetite and, at times, the ability to move without pain. There were days when she lacked the strength to lift her head.

Before she died, my mom agreed to donate her medical records and tissue samples to the National Cancer Institute for research. She knew that research would not save her. She did it for people she would never meet, hoping another mother and another family might someday have better options.

She could not have known that one of those people would be her own granddaughter.

Nearly 50 years later, my daughter has benefited from medical knowledge and treatments that did not exist when her grandmother was fighting cancer. Decades of research — made possible in part by patients like my mom — have brought better imaging, genetic testing, targeted therapies and treatments tailored to individual patients.

My mother invested in a future she would never see. My daughter is living in that future.

But far too many Iowa families still hear the terrifying words, “It’s cancer.”

The Iowa Cancer Registry estimated that 21,200 new invasive cancers would be diagnosed in 2025 and that 6,300 Iowans would die from cancer. Its 2026 report raised those projections to 21,700 new invasive cancers and approximately 6,400 deaths — 500 more diagnoses and 100 more deaths than the previous year’s estimates.

Those numbers cannot be explained simply by Iowa’s older population. Even after adjusting for age, Iowa has the second-highest rate of newly diagnosed cancers in the nation. Its overall cancer incidence rate is approximately 10% above the national rate.

We are facing a public health crisis.

Rep. Ashley Hinson has promoted her proposal to direct 10% of duties collected on imported tobacco products into a cancer research trust fund, with an emphasis on pediatric and rare cancers. Her office estimates that the proposal would have generated approximately $24 million using 2025 collections.

Additional research funding is welcome. But introducing a bill is not the same as enacting it, and $24 million would be only a fraction of 1% of the National Cancer Institute’s annual budget. Iowa needs a sustained commitment equal to the scale of this crisis.

Cancer policy also cannot be separated from whether patients can obtain and afford the treatments that research produces.

People with cancer experience health care policy while trying to remain employed, care for their children, pay their bills and stay alive. For low-income and working-class Iowans, Medicaid can be what stands between them and the imaging, medications and specialized treatment my mother could only dream of receiving. Hinson voted for legislation projected to cause 110,000 Iowans to lose health coverage while providing substantial tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans.

Losing coverage during chemotherapy, radiation or immunotherapy can be a catastrophic medical and financial disruption.

Earlier this year, Hinson also voted against legislation that would have extended enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies for three years. Without those subsidies, approximately 119,000 Iowans could face higher premiums. Hinson says she wants a bipartisan health care solution with stronger safeguards against waste and fraud. But when the House voted on a proposal to prevent those increases, she voted no.

Anyone who wants to confront Iowa’s cancer crisis must support both research and access to the treatments it makes possible.

A serious cancer policy includes research, prevention, early detection, environmental health, affordable insurance and reliable access to care. Hinson’s research proposal should be considered alongside the consequences of her broader health care record.

Josh Turek understands how cancer reaches across generations. He lost his grandmother to pancreatic cancer. His father has battled cancer connected to Agent Orange exposure, and his sister was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

When Turek’s sister was first diagnosed, her private insurer denied coverage for a PET scan to determine whether the cancer had spread. His family has experienced both the promise of modern medicine and the barriers that can keep patients from receiving it.

As an Iowa legislator, Turek sponsored measures supporting cancer research, including funding for pediatric cancer research in Iowa. He also sponsored legislation addressing medical devices that use known carcinogens, seeking to reduce cancer risks for Iowans with disabilities.

My mom endured the brutal cancer treatments of 1977 and gave what she could to help future generations. Decades later, I watched my daughter confront a brain cancer diagnosis while raising two little boys.

Today, my daughter’s cancer has remained stable for five years. Her sons have had five more years of bedtime stories, family celebrations and ordinary mornings with their mother.

That is what cancer research and access to treatment mean to a family. They mean more time.

My mom gave to a future she would never see. My daughter is living in that future. Iowans deserve a U.S. senator who will support both the research that advances cancer care and the health coverage that helps patients receive it. Josh Turek understands what is at stake for families like ours, and we need him representing us in the United States Senate.

Lisa Welsh writes from Cedar Rapids.