Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Back in 1992, Sheila Ross was diagnosed with lung cancer. She ended up having two-thirds of her right lung removed. “At that point in time I felt guilty because I was a smoker and I just thought, ‘I paid the price. That is that,’” Ross says. “And I turned out fine.”
Then, eight years later, the board member of the Severna Park-based Oncology Foundation of Maryland and District of Columbia, had a recurrence. This time it was in the hilum area, the wedge-shaped area on the central portion of each lung. “They had to remove the rest of the right lung followed by four or five months of chemo and radiation. It took me a year and a half to recuperate.”
During this, Ross, an Annapolis resident, began learning more about lung cancer. She discovered that of all the different cancers, it is the biggest single killer.
She also discovered that when it came to lung cancer, there was a political problem. “There was a stigma,” she explains. “There was very little money going into lung cancer research. It was considered purely a smoker’s disease. The thinking was: Why waste money on smokers? They shouldn’t have smoked.”
This realization launched Ross, a veteran Capitol Hill worker who finished her long career in politics serving as a staffer for U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, on a 20-year mission. She founded the Lung Cancer Alliance in Washington, D.C., in 2004.
Ross also served on the Food and Drug Administration’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee and the Early Detection and Screening Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
“I worked 20 years to get CT screening approved by the federal government and covered by Medicare and private insurance.” she recalls. “That will save hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. Maybe even more than that. That is my achievement.”
With her credentials, the Maryland D.C. Society of Clinical Oncology invited her to give a presentation in October of 2018. The Oncology Foundation of Maryland Executive Administrator Pat Troy and several other members of her organization were in attendance.
“It was one of the best programs we have seen,” Troy says. “We said, ‘This is someone we need on our board.’ We thought her expertise would be invaluable. Not all our board members have a background in oncology.”
The 80-year-old Ross gladly accepted. She saw it as an additional opportunity to promote lung cancer screening and raise the visibility of the foundation.
“I hope I can help establish partnerships and working relationships with other advocacy and professional organizations to enhance their public education programs for all cancers,” she says.
Troy was elated, and surprised. “There’s not many people out there like her,” she says. “What were really the chances of her sitting on our board? She has done some amazing work increasing accessibility of lung cancer screening, not only locally, but nationally.”
Besides Ross continuing her public informational work with the Severna Park organization, she was excited at the prospect of being part of a county-wide nonprofit. “I’m sure that was appealing, the chance to become involved in something locally,” Troy says.
The board of the Oncology Foundation of Maryland saw Ross as someone who could help take the organization to the next level. The foundation expects to roll out one of its biggest campaigns ever for promoting cancer screening, prevention, and advocacy.
“She has so much experience,” Troy says. “She is keeping us focused in the right direction as we try to work through our public awareness campaigns. She has very good information and contacts from her years in D.C. She’s also a cancer survivor and she’s been in the trenches.”
It seems like Ross has an endless number of ways she can help promote the foundation’s mission, which is to strengthen relationships with hospitals, government health organizations, and other nonprofits in efforts to educate the public about the positive things happening to cancer research and care.
“She has already provided us with resources from other organizations that have been doing the same kind of work so we can put strategic alliances together,” Troy says. “I feel that’s where she will add a lot of real value.”
Pam Piro, president of the foundation’s board of directors, always looks forward to what Ross has to say at their meetings. “She is a tireless advocate. She’s such a powerful player in the cancer community,” Piro says. “She understands the medical and legislative aspects. She has unbelievable expertise and talent.”
The most important thing to Ross continues to be helping the foundation get more people screened. “The oncology foundation is willing to take this on and get the implementation rate, the number of people screened, to 15 percent,” she explains. “I hope they will be the first in the nation to get the number up to 50 percent in Maryland and Washington D.C. I hope they will lead the way for the rest of the country.”
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