At Martha’s Vineyard, Touch Talks Wellness and BlackDoctor.org joined forces to host an urgent and deeply personal conversation on cancer disparities in the Black community. Powered by partnerships with organizations like Gilead Sciences, the event brought together survivors, clinicians, advocates, and researchers to push forward one message: talking, screening, and advocating can save lives.
Grounding the Conversation in Urgency
The program opened with Leticia Price of Gilead Sciences, who shared both her professional expertise in breast oncology and her personal family experience with breast cancer. She underscored staggering statistics: Black women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and face higher rates of late-stage diagnoses and lower survival rates than their white counterparts.
“This isn’t just business—it’s personal,” Price said. “If we don’t change the narrative, we’ll keep repeating these devastating statistics.”
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Survivorship as Purpose
Touch founder Ricki Fairley shared her own testimony of surviving triple-negative breast cancer, calling her diagnosis a “gift from God” that gave her purpose. Fairley emphasized the need to bring conversations out of the clinic and into community spaces—from porches and kitchens to churches and family reunions—before a diagnosis becomes a crisis.
A Panel of Voices and Perspectives
Panelists included survivors, caregivers, researchers, and advocates:
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Tiara Neal, Executive Director of the Bexa Equity Alliance, who now partners with Touch to provide free, noninvasive breast exams.
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Valerie Clark, CEO of Clark Strategies, who spoke on the caregiver experience and the importance of building community “care supporters.”
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Angela James, founder of Diversity Health Networks, who bridges gaps between pharma and marginalized communities.
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Dr. Keith Crawford, Prostate Health Education Network, who highlighted that prostate cancer incidence among Black men has risen 80% since 2019, with death rates consistently double those of white men.
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Dr. Durado Brooks, longtime cancer prevention leader, who urged attendees to stay up to date on colorectal screenings, noting Black people are 20% more likely to be diagnosed and 40% more likely to die from colon cancer.
Themes That Resonated
Throughout the discussion, several themes emerged:
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Family Health Histories Matter – Families must move past silence and secrecy. Creating “her-story” or family health trees can reveal generational risks.
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Self-Advocacy Is Survival – Patients were urged to push doctors for answers, demand screenings, and even change providers when necessary.
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Representation in Research – With Black participation in clinical trials as low as 3%, panelists called for intentional recruitment, more Black researchers, and culturally competent education to ensure therapies work for everyone.
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Beyond Medicine – Social determinants like diet, exercise, stress, housing, and isolation were recognized as major drivers of cancer risk and recovery.
Changing the Narrative Together
The event made clear that while the statistics are daunting, cancer is not a death sentence—early detection, equitable care, and clinical trial participation can change outcomes. Survivors on stage embodied that message, offering hope and urgency in equal measure.
As Fairley summed it up: “Patients don’t join clinical trials for science—they join because they want to live to see another birthday, another graduation, another grandbaby. We have to put love around the science.”
The Touch Talks Wellness x BlackDoctor.org gathering left attendees empowered to return home and spark critical conversations within their families and communities. From Martha’s Vineyard to living rooms across the country, this movement is about building not just generational wealth—but generational health.
