In honor of Global Volunteer Appreciation Month, we’re shining a spotlight on the incredible community of volunteers who have a crucial role in advancing the LBCA mission. The dedication, passion, and unwavering commitment from patient advocates, clinicians, and researchers make a tangible difference in our ability to raise awareness and educate about ILC. 

Whether sharing an ILC story, participating in a volunteer committee or board, leading a peer to peer fundraising event, or raising awareness of ILC in a local community event – these efforts are all key steps towards our shared vision of eradicating lobular breast cancer.

The following accomplishments from LBCA’s volunteer advocate community wouldn’t have been possible without volunteer efforts:

• Advocates and volunteers joined with ILC researchers around the world to bring awareness to ILC by sharing information on ILC, creating reels about the importance of ILC research and hosting events on October 15th, the inaugural Global Lobular Breast Cancer Awareness Day. 
• Over 1700 survey respondents volunteered their time in December to share their experiences with ILC and surveillance, the results of which will be submitted for publication at a major breast cancer conference later this year.  
• Volunteers and scientists worked together to draft lay summaries of most of the scientific abstracts on new ILC research findings presented as posters at SABCS in December 2024 for sharing on the LBCA website.
• Volunteer advocates living with metastatic ILC worked to launch (and subsequently lead) two virtual support groups specifically for individuals with metastatic ILC. 
• Two volunteers launched a second LBCA Local Advocacy Team (LAT) in the DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia region) and two others launched a third in Cascadia (Washington/Oregon). These LATs are working to personally bring LBCA’s materials and information about ILC to local communities and are helping to expand LBCA’s reach and ability to raise awareness of ILC and the need for more research to more locations around the country.       
• Volunteers and scientists collaborated to produce the Myths vs. Facts About ILC resource published in this month’s newsletter, and which will live as a resource on our Patient Information page. 

We are so fortunate to have dedicated and generous volunteers working by our side. Your commitment is invaluable, your hard work is inspiring, and your belief in our mission fuels everything we do. With you as our partners, our small but mighty team continues to accomplish great things each year. 

With sincere gratitude,

The LBCA Team