Last week’s blog post from People of Faith for Access to Medicines focused on the need for our advocacy to appeal to the heart, not just the head. There is no surer path to the hearts of the public, and even lawmakers, than stories of real people affected by our medicines crisis.
Which is why PFAM has a request for you: Please keep your eyes and ears open for stories of individuals, in your own communities, your own families or even in media coverage, who struggle to access medicines they need. If you know of a person who may be willing to share their medicine access story with us, please send a message to fwquigley@gmail.com
The late Tobeka Daki, who died because she could not afford breast cancer medicine discovered with U.S. taxpayer dollars, knew the power of a personal story, and freely shared hers in support of the broader struggle.
Another good example of how powerful a personal story can be is in this Washington Post article from last fall.
The article, and an accompanying short video, tells the story of Lauren Marston, a 34 year-old Washington DC resident with Type 1 diabetes. Marston stockpiles insulin in the vegetable drawer of her apartment refrigerator because she fears running out of the drug she needs to stay alive.
Her fears are not irrational: Once, when she lost her job and the accompanying health insurance, she ran dangerously low on the insulin she uses. The price of that medicine, Eli Lilly’s Humalog, once just $21 a vial, has climbed to over $250 a vial. “There’s nothing stopping the insulin companies from raising the prices exponentially,” Marston told The Post.“And that’s a scary way to live if your life is dependent on something.”
The article told the tale in other ways as well: a historical retrospective of how the inventors of insulin originally sold the patent for $1 each, charts and figures showing 1,000 %-plus increases in the price of the medicine in recent decades, and quotes from worried physician experts.
But the power of the story comes in the example of a real person we can all relate to. We want to gather such stories at PFAM to help push forward the change that needs to occur. Please help us if you can.
People of Faith for Access to Medicines is excited to expand our work in 2017. This year, we will be focusing on in-person outreach (please let us know if we can present to your congregation or group!) and the Fall publication of our book from Cornell University Press. Our blog, “Prescription for Change,” will be published bi-weekly during 2017. To get regular updates from PFAM, please sign up here .