Podcast
Losing His Wife to Cancer Brought Chris Draft From the NFL to the White House
Author(s):
On this episode of the “Cancer Horizons” podcast, former NFL linebacker Chris Draft discusses his wife’s experience with cancer, which led to her untimely death, and describes why advocacy is so important in the cancer world, especially with Cancer Moonshot bringing disparities to the forefront.
When Chris Draft took his first step on the football field as a professional NFL player back in the late 90s, he probably never imagined that he’d be fiercely advocating for the lung cancer community some 20 years later.
In this episode of the “Cancer Horizons” podcast, Draft explains how his late wife received a lung cancer diagnosis at age 37, and how she inspired him to create the Chris Draft Family Foundation’s Team Draft lung cancer initiative to advocate for the community.
He also speaks about why the relaunch of Cancer Moonshot is so vital to addressing disparities in cancer care, and how large platforms like the Super Bowl can be used to move change forward.
“I'm a ballplayer, I know there's no way one person wins the game, right? It just doesn't happen. It takes everybody — it takes a team of people, takes a team with different skill sets, takes the people that are on the field, or the people that are supporting that, from the coaches to the equipment manager to trainers, all of that,” Draft said. “And that's the same thing within lung cancer. So just because somebody hasn't played that number one spot or they’re that number one advocate doesn't mean that they are not essential and critical to getting this done.”
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