Health is Fragile: 26 Stories

26 patient advocates from the Healthe Voices 2022 conference describe the moment when they realized health was fragile. Snapshots of diverse lived experiences.

Proem

Hi. Each of us can remember a moment, an event, or a time in our life when we realized the fragility of health. The first question I ask many of my guests is, when did you realize health was fragile? Breaks the ice. It tells a brief story. And it shifts the brain from the nervousness of a recorded conversation to something personal.

I recently attended Healthe Voices Conference sponsored by Janssen Johnson and Johnson Pharma. I. Janssen invited about 95 patient advocates for three days to network, learn, and party. What an opportunity. I brought my recording equipment and asked three questions. I asked,

• When did you first realize health was fragile?
• How do you recognize success in your advocacy?
• When you meet a newbie advocate, where do you point them for skills, resources, and research?

I spoke with 26 of the participants for about five minutes each resulting in over two hours of recording. I can’t include all four topics in one episode. So, in this episode, I’ll share when people first realized health was fragile. I’ll cover the others in subsequent episodes. For this…