Patient Stories

Claudia Tatum, a member of the Kidney Cancer Association's Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council, spoke with Bruce Morton on the Cancer Interviews podcast about being diagnosed with a rare form of renal cell carcinoma, survivorship, and her passion for advocacy. Claudia brings her personal experience and professional expertise as an oncology nurse and radiation therapist to her work supporting others.…

This is a guest post by Lindsay Walker. Lindsay, 46, was diagnosed with stage 3 chromophobe renal cell carcinoma in November 2022, right after Halloween. My kidney cancer journey began on Halloween 2022. I never considered Halloween to be “scary,” but last Halloween turned out to be one of the scariest days of my life, and the day my world…

This is a guest post by Liz Leff. Liz is a kidney cancer survivor, Senior Corporate Relations Director at the National Kidney Foundation, and a member of the International Kidney Cancer Coalition’s Board of Directors. Hi, my name is Liz Leff. It all started nine years ago. I had a simple urine test and microscopic traces of blood were found…

This is a guest post by Katie Coleman, a patient, advocate, and the founder of the Chromophobe and Oncocytic Tumor Alliance, a KCA Affiliate Partner. "ChRCC research, therefore, appears to be at an inflection point, with the potential for the first specific therapeutic strategies on the near horizon." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQJQVCUNW5c This exciting excerpt from a recently published paper on chromophobe renal…

Claudia Tatum joined the KCA's Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council in 2023. She is based in Oklahoma. What motivated you to get involved with the KCA’s PCAC? From the time I was diagnosed in Jan 2023, I began thinking about what the lesson learned would be from my Cancer Adventure. Then, how can I can best use the lesson to…

Annamaria Scaccia joined the KCA’s Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council (PCAC) in 2023. She is a frequent blog contributor for the KCA and collaborator on a number of special edition KCA newsletters. What motivated you to get involved with the KCA’s PCAC? https://www.kidneycancer.org/stories/bodybuilder/ I was motivated to get involved with the KCA’s PCAC because joining the council felt like a…

Matt McClain joined the KCA's Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council (PCAC) in 2023. What motivated you to get involved with the KCA’s PCAC? https://www.kidneycancer.org/stories/learned-how-to-be-his-own-advocate/ When I was newly diagnosed, I reached out to a few people who I knew had kidney cancer. Unlike me, none of them were stage IV, so while they were sympathetic, they were not able to…

This is a guest post by Michael Whitley, 46, who was diagnosed with stage 4 clear cell renal cell carcinoma in 2019. He is an engineer and lives in Huntsville, Alabama. Michael Whitley, left, driving home from Vanderbilt with his boyfriend, Michael Mueller, in July. Since my scan in November of 2022, I have had 3 more CT scans. The…

Peggy Zuckerman, a long-time kidney cancer patient, advocate, and member of the KCA's Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council, was the featured cover story for Cancer Today magazine's Summer 2023 issue. She was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2003. Photo by Morgan Shidler. “It was the start of a race, and I did not know it,” remembers Zuckerman, then 54, who…

This is a guest post by Mike Domingo. My name is Mike Domingo and this is my journey.  It started one night in February 2021. I woke up to go to the bathroom and fortunately turned on the light. The bowl was full of blood though I had no pain or any other symptoms. I took a picture of the blood. My doctor…