The Armstrongs pose for a photo with other families who came to the Capitol Hill, during the Alliance for Childhood Cancer Action Days 2025. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — From Feb. 26-28, the Armstrong family could be found visiting Capitol Hill, so that they could speak with West Virginia’s members of Congress about their experience with childhood cancer.

Shepherdstown residents Joshua and Kathryn Armstrong had previously participated in the Alliance for Childhood Cancer Action Days last year, but this was the first time that they attended it with their children. Eight-year-old Lillian and five-year-old Laurel, who is in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, came with their parents to the 15th Annual Alliance for Childhood Cancer Action Days. The family spent their time on Capitol Hill asking their congressional representatives to vote in favor of key policy issues related to childhood cancer.

“It went really well. I have a very positive outlook on how West Virginia’s going to act,” Kathryn said on Saturday. “Everybody from our state seemed to be really supportive of the policies that we were asking for. It wasn’t really political — everybody stayed focus on the fact that this was a bipartisan issue.”

She noted that the policies related to childhood cancer were being called the Childhood Cancer Package. It included the Childhood Cancer STAR Act, the Give Kids a Chance Act and the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act. The only policy that their congressional representatives seemed unlikely to support was one related to Medicaid.

“We almost had the Childhood Cancer Package passed in December of last year, but during the overhaul it fell apart. It made it through the Senate and we were waiting for it to be passed in the House of Representatives, when it fell apart,” Kathryn said, mentioning they were lobbying with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for the same policies they had been lobbying for at last year’s action days. “It already had a good amount of support. So, we were pushing for this to go first, in their next discussion on March 14. We were asking them to finish what they started and get it done!”

The Armstrongs were joined by a large coalition of families from throughout the state and the country, who also had experience with childhood cancer. Last year, the Armstrongs were the only representatives from West Virginia to participate in the Alliance for Childhood Cancer Action Days, while this year, all but one district in the state was represented.

“This was the largest group, that we know of, that has ever gone!” Kathryn said. “People from 40 states came to talk to their legislators. There had over 350 participants, this year.”

For Lillian, the trip was a way for her and her sister to fight for a better future for other children who are diagnosed with cancer, as well as for them to meet others who had similar experiences to their own.

“One of my new friends was from Nevada and another was from New Jersey,” Lillian said. “We had childcare there, which was fantastic, and that’s where I met my other friend London! London is also from West Virginia and has a sibling who had cancer, too.”

To learn more about the Alliance for Childhood Cancer, visit https://www.allianceforchildhoodcancer.org.