It feels cliché to say, “how is it already December?” But really, how is it already December? It’s been a whirlwind of a year at Cancer Legal Care and as we reflect on the past twelve months, we are immensely grateful for the communities and partnerships we have the privilege to stand alongside. While 2025 has had pointed difficulties, what has moved me is the perseverance and dedication of Minnesota’s interwoven support system- individuals, communities, and organizations that want to help others and make our world a better place. I always say that one of my favorite things about my job is that it brings me in contact with the best people. If anything, this past year has made me believe that even more deeply.
So, in that spirit I want to share highlights of just a few of the partnerships we were lucky to be a part of this year:
- The Cookout: Cancer Legal Care partnered with LaShaune P. Johnson, PhD- a certified listener poet, public health professor, culturally responsive evaluator, and three time cancer survivor- to better understand the lived experiences of Black breast cancer survivors and their families. LaShaune engaged in exploratory conversations with an amazing group of women to learn about their experiences as patients, survivors, and caregivers and translate those lessons into a plan of how Cancer Legal Care can reduce barriers and meaningfully increase access to our services. After those conversations, we had a celebration dinner with the wonderful women who shared their stories and insights. We discussed what we learned from their conversations and collaboratively envisioned future work to be done. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of these women for sharing their time, experience, and ideas with us and we are excited to continue this work into 2026 and beyond.
- Minnesota Cancer Alliance Cancer Plan: Cancer Legal Care is a proud member of the Minnesota Cancer Alliance, sitting on its Steering Committee, Policy Committee, and Leadership Team. In this role, we had the opportunity to work together with other MCA members and community stakeholders to develop the new Cancer Plan Minnesota, which is the state-wide framework for action to reduce the burden of cancer and promote health equity. Work began in 2024 to evaluate the existing plan and decide how to move forward in creating a new one. Over the last year, we worked alongside a diverse group of stakeholders in a process of research, brainstorming, drafting, evaluation, feedback, and revision to create the upcoming Cancer Plan Minnesota. In doing this work, we were able to achieve our goal of ensuring that the financial toxicity of cancer is recognized in the state-wide understanding of cancer’s burden and to provide policy-level solutions to reduce it. The new Cancer Plan Minnesota will be showcased at the 2026 MCA Cancer Summit in February.
- COLLABS: In 2024, Cancer Legal Care partnered with Arjun Gupta, MBBS, and his team at the University of Minnesota, to study the impacts of early legal intervention on the treatment journey of patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer. The study was called Colorectal Cancer Legal and Administrative Burden Support (COLLABS). Throughout 2024 and 2025, Cancer Legal Care met with some of Dr. Gupta’s newly diagnosed patients to perform free “Legal Care Checkups” as part of their standard treatment plan. Each patient received three Legal Care Checkups to identify existing legal issues and prepare them with knowledge and support for legal issues that may occur in the future of their treatment. The results showed that integrating legal care into cancer treatment is both feasible and deeply valued- helping patients feel supported and empowered during their care journey. The study manuscript was published in JCO Oncology Practice, An American Society of Clinical Oncology Journal. We are thankful to our friends at the Minnesota Colon Cancer Research Foundation for the funding to make this study possible.
- LEGACY CARE: The successful findings of the COLLABS study have led Cancer Legal Care and the University of Minnesota to parter again, this time on a study called Legal Guidance and AdvocaCY for CAREgivers (LEGACY CARE). This study aims to build on the findings of the COLLABS study by working with newly diagnosed patients with colon cancer and their caregivers to learn more about the issues caregivers face and the support they need. Late this year, Cancer Legal Care began providing free Legal Care Checkups to patients and their caregivers shortly after the patient’s diagnosis with colon cancer. This work will continue into 2026 and we look forward sharing the results of the study next year.
- We stepped outside of our comfort zone and had a blast appearing on the Living Healthy and Aging Well radio show (twice!) and All Things Aging with Danelle and Sarah podcast.
- Healthcare Directive workshops: Cancer Legal Care has partnered with Minnesota Hospice and Gilda’s Club Minnesota since 2023 to put on “one stop shop” workshops for attendees to learn about healthcare directives, fill out their directives while asking questions to legal, medical, and spiritual experts, and walk out with fully completed documents. Thinking about one’s own health decline can understandably be difficult and scary. But these workshops have broken through some of that stigma by providing a venue for that emotional process to happen in a welcoming, positive, and supportive environment. This year, these events grew to a record number, with four workshops and over 170 attendees.
Thank you for your support which allows us to do this work that fills our hearts! Everyone here at Cancer Legal Care wishes you and your family a holiday season filled with love and brightness.
