Raising Awareness for Kidney Cancer and the Challenges Patients Face

Looking back on March 2025, it is important to recognize Kidney Cancer Awareness Month. The awareness month, according to kidneycancer.org, is a time to get involved, as over 600,000 people in the United States live with kidney cancer.

In an interview with CURE, Sid Sadler — a patient advocate and survivor of kidney cancer — sat down to look back on Kidney Cancer Awareness Month, as well as highlighted some unique difficulties that young adults may face after being diagnosed with cancer.

He covered this topic, and more, in another one of our articles, highlighting challenges patients with kidney cancer may face, as well as what inspired him to become a patient advocate for kidney cancer awareness.

You can catch Sadler’s insights on her experience with kidney cancer, as well as facts and tips, in his recent Instagram Takeover with CURE!

Transcript:

This is a challenge across the board with cancer. As I've said before, usually when I go into a urologist's office, I'm the youngest person there, and I'm often asked if I'm there for my grandfather or father, not as a patient myself. One of the biggest challenges is the feeling of isolation. Even though we try to do a good job with things like interviews, or other advocates doing interviews and sharing content online — whether it be memes, social media posts or other things — it can still feel isolating.

When you go to that doctor's office, whether it's your oncologist, your urologist or even a [support group], you're usually the youngest person there, especially if you're under 50 or 45. You rarely see two of us in the same room because, honestly, there aren't many of us. That feeling of isolation can be challenging. When you're talking about cancer as a whole and being a young adult, I think about the things that people don't consider, like coordinating with your job, your professional development and time off. Some people don't have the luxury of having a flexible employer, someone who understands that there could be a mild reaction to treatment or that you might need to take a day off. Those are things that people don't necessarily think about, and I think we're trying to do a better job of educating not only other people about that, but also educating doctors.

I love the physicians I have, but I also understand that they don't necessarily think about those minute details in every patient's life. We can't expect a doctor to not only be a brilliant physician with a great bedside manner, but also think about the nitty-gritty things that go on in each of their patients' lives. So, we try to do a better job of talking to doctors and informing them that these factors are part of patient care, not just the medicine, treatment or scans.

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