The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Tanya Flanagan 0:19
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tonya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started. Do

Tanya Flanagan 0:47
Good morning Las Vegas, good morning Nevada, good morning world. Because you could actually be tuning in from anywhere. And once again, I'm always excited and delighted to welcome you to the show. I try to continuously bring informative programs and guests in to educate you about information, programs, activities going on and our great city that you may not be aware of, just to allow you the chance to meet the people behind those great initiatives. So today, I am pleased to welcome someone who I am having the pleasure of getting to know better and more and more as time passes, we met in the space of breast cancer, and as you know, if you've heard any of some of the previous shows, huge advocate for women's health and for breast cancer, awareness and action, accountability and putting forth the work to make a difference in the lives of those who are afflicted, not just as the breast cancer patient, but as the family members, the loved ones who surround those individuals who may be plagued by this disease, which we're making great strides on. But I am very pleased to welcome to the studio today someone who I am having the pleasure of getting to know who works in this space. Latoshka Nether, good morning. Good morning. Latoshka is the senior grassroots advocacy manager for the Cancer Action Network, which is the policy side of the American Cancer Society's efforts here. So welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Thank you for taking some time to talk with me this morning. My pleasure. I think we first met, I was sitting on a panel, but I wasn't talking about, was I talking about healthcare? I don't think I was. I think I was talking about, well, I was talking about tobacco. So I was talking about healthcare from a different angle, from a different angle, and how it still affects you in this space, and then exponentially, how it affects communities of color and just people as a whole. And I had the pleasure of meeting you that was about a year ago, and then coming through the recent 83rd session of the Nevada State Legislature, chance to talk with you even more and to see you do some of your work. And so one of the things we're going to talk about on show today is a survey, a 100,000 women strong survey that is happening right now that women across America can participate in if they fit into the demographic that you're looking for.

Latoschka Nether 3:13
Yes. So the references to voices of black women, where we are partnered with the American Cancer Society, our our side of the house that works on research and outreach to the community, and then the Cancer Action Network side of the house, which works on policy, working together to Bring together 100,000 black women across the country to discuss and understand cancer history in the black community, specifically targeting black women,

Tanya Flanagan 3:51
we had a powerful conversation earlier this week. A few days ago, Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of serving as a panelist in my Assembly Member role. And it was about 70 to 75 women gathered and talked about various the discovery, you know, of cancer. When you first learn that you've been diagnosed, someone says you have cancer, the history of our families and the women, how they've handled it before, and the importance of this study that will be going on and who can participate. How did you find yourself in this space?

Latoschka Nether 4:35
So I came to American Cancer Society about four years ago after the pandemic and things in life changed, and working on policy initiatives for another organization, and now having the opportunity to talk about cancer, because I, just like many of us, have had family members who have been affected by cancer, and I. Um, whether you're talking breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, all of the things the initiative that I decided to pursue within the organization are things that affect our community specifically, and by that I mean the black community and those populations that are underserved, underrepresented and, you know, under upper, underrepresented and marginalized. So seeing that the American Cancer Society and the Cancer Action Network were willing to put forth effort, that was my space, my lane that I found within the organization, and we've worked on things from prostate cancer to biomarker legislation, we have a piece of legislation now include which includes multi cancer early detection, early screening, making sure that people have coverage for cancer screenings as early as possible. So this study came about earlier this year, where we were actually looking at black women. I mean, we are the leaders of most of our families, and conversations about our family history things that we have probably and historically not discussed healthcare. Things of that nature have been silent in our community for a very long time. So this is our opportunity to get out in front and be seen and heard and have those conversations that we probably should have been having for a very long time.

Tanya Flanagan 6:39
I have to agree with you on that. I really appreciate that that is the one key piece, and it's not just one thing, but it's a key component of the study that it's looking at, encouraging women, black women, to have a conversation in its totality, about their lives, their lifestyle, and what and how the lifestyle choices impact them, because, as a cancer survivor, you are often examined because you have cancer, right? So we're looking at your blood work. We're looking at how it affects you, but because we're treating you, and that's the immediate need to respond to what is happening to you in that moment. So we need to treat you in whatever way we can treat you for breast cancer. A lot of times, black women are diagnosed triple negative versus triple positive. And folks of those of you who are not as familiar with breast cancer conversation as folks like myself and latosha are, triple negative breast cancer means that the common therapy process for treating breast cancer has not been proven to work for you. Triple positive breast cancer, that course of treatment has been proven to work on that and when given to you, you should respond favorably, and it should help to work on your cancer, to send you in remission, to cure you, to extend your life. Because there's always the conversation that you don't, per se, cure breast cancer, but you get it under control. You it's you know, it's removed, it's remission. It's, you know, whatever. It's gone, depending on how your case is addressed. So you're in the throes of being treated. You're not in the throes of being looked at from what caused it in the first place, or what factors exacerbated your circumstances, or do those extenuating circumstances really come into play? And that's what I love about the voices of black women. Study, it looks at the stressors of life, family structure, community structure, access to doctors, access to healthy food, access to exercise, stigmas associated with all these things in society that can weigh you down, childhood trauma, negative energy, internalized and carried forward and then now it's deteriorating and eating away at you. And I think the other thing about that those are the kinds of spaces where some people, some women, will not have even pause to factor in how stress of my children, of my husband, of my job of childhood trauma are impacting me in my adult life to thus generate this negative energy in my body, and then my cells wake out, and I have this breast cancer that continues to grow and metastasize.

Latoschka Nether 9:51
And also understanding the historical data of all of that, and how you know the things that we've never you. Or typically don't have conversations about you. Don't know, necessarily, where this thing that lives inside of you came from. Did your grandmother? Did your grandfather? Did your great grandmother? Any of those people? Because they were never really conversations that were had out loud or beyond the front door. You know they were, you know, family issues, family matters or not

Tanya Flanagan 10:25
even like I talked about this on Tuesday at the event earlier this week, we talked, and I mentioned my mother having had breast cancer, passing away from it at age 58 but me not knowing what type of breast cancer she had, was a triple negative. Was a triple positive that even up to the moment, because I was in college, she tried to conceal a lumpectomy with a sentinel no biopsy, which is where they take lymph nodes from your underarms and your lymphatic system, folks, and they examine whether or not the cancer is getting into your bloodstream, and thus to risk the spread to other organs in your body, primarily bones, liver, lungs, now, brain. I didn't know really anything about her cancer. No, I had no pathological information about what had occurred with my mom.

Latoschka Nether 11:15
And that's direct, that's that's your immediate and those conversations because

Tanya Flanagan 11:21
she wanted to protect me. Because, I guess in her mind, you're not thinking, Oh, this is something my daughter could develop. You think this is my journey, right? And my child has a whole different space, and so it's going to be different than for my mother passes away, and four years later, I'm diagnosed with breast cancer in the same breast as my mom, and started my cancer journey at the same age, my mother started her cancer journey, only it was different because she had ovarian cancer concerns at 32 when I was two years old,

Latoschka Nether 11:49
which were probably never discussed, no, which

Tanya Flanagan 11:53
I thought then was a partial I didn't, wasn't aware. And at 10, I thought she was having a partial hysterectomy, only to learn she was completing the hysterectomy because they had tried this conservation approach from the time I was two until the time I was 10. So it's the things you don't know. So I that is one of the things that I am looking forward to, seeing the results and wanting to encourage women to participate, and while we have this moment, I like to make sure we give good information while we have a lot of time to give it to people. Yes, so tell people who might fit the qualifications to participate, how to do that.

Latoschka Nether 12:33
So I I implore you who, if you're out there in the world, if you are a black woman. If you know a black woman between the ages of 25 and 55 who has not been diagnosed herself with cancer, to go to voices of black women.org and fill out the beginning of the survey. It is the start to the conversation. You will be contacted by a person who is medically trained to ask questions, to talk with you. It doesn't cost you anything, but a few moments of your time. The study is ongoing. We'll follow you and track your information that you share, but you have to be honest. This is our opportunity to be honest and to share. Right now, we we have partnered with the Oprah Winfrey Network to continue to get the information out, but we are still in that mindset that, you know, this is kind of my business. I don't need to talk, but we need to share. We need to talk to people. We have about 4600 women who have registered for the study. We can't begin to do the work of the study until we have at least 10,000 women. We are looking for 100,000 we need to get to 10. So I implore people, if you know someone, if you are someone you know, reach out. This is this is our, our time.

Tanya Flanagan 14:09
And I have to echo that as a cancer survivor who can't participate, who falls in that age range, do it for me. Do it for your loved ones. Do it for your friends. Do it for your mom, your grandmother, do it for an aunt, do it for a girlfriend. Do for anyone. Do it for your children. Do it for anyone that you've ever because we all know someone, there's like so only so many degrees of separation between you. I don't care if it's your co worker, and you don't even have to like your co worker that much, but you know,

Latoschka Nether 14:41
but certainly

Tanya Flanagan 14:46
do it for people that just do it because it's a right thing to do and it's an opportunity to make a difference and to exponentially level the playing field, because to. Say, Hey, we care about what happens to black women is a very rare thing in this country in time period. But to say, hey, we want to partner with you and take a fair and sincere look at what happens to you is important. So I encourage you as a survivor to do it for yourself, your friends, your family, people you know, people you don't know, because you can, and it's just a little bit of time, and it's time well spent. Now, policy is your thing, so we always talk about breast cancer as a disease and how it affects families and women and the signs to look for on self rest exams. But policy is another very, very, very important detail and layer to how well you are treated, absolutely what you have access to, and the difference in sometimes life or death, relative to who you are, where your socioeconomic status, your cultural constraints, your community, your housing, whatever, your insurance bottom line, yes to what type of care you get, cell policy, what's going on in the policy room?

Latoschka Nether 16:25
So we are trying to regroup and figure out where we go now that the Medicaid legislation has passed, and looking forward to making some moves on the Affordable Care Act to make sure that that stays somewhat intact so that folks have access. It's important. We're working on some screening legislation, the multi Cancer Early Detection Screening Act, which would help to make sure that insurance covers a single blood test that can detect cancer early. There are screening legislation pieces that we're working on for men in prostate cancer, PSA. For him, we want to make sure that insurance is covering a PSA test, just as they cover mammograms. These are all of the things that many of us, you don't think about until you need to think about it. Well, we have to think about it now, otherwise they'll be gone, and when you need it, it won't be there.

Tanya Flanagan 17:29
It was that you it's funny that you say that we have to think about it now, even though you may need it later. I was at a conference the other week and a plenary, and there's something the man said, is, as you structure your day and you're setting your goals, start your day with what would I want to see accomplished or available 10 years from now? Spend your morning on that. Spend your afternoon on goals you want to see achieved within a two to five year window, and close your day on what you need to finish today. Because humans, by nature, procrastinate,

Latoschka Nether 18:00
right? I'll get to it tomorrow.

Tanya Flanagan 18:03
So the effect of use of time, and I was like, that's actually kind of brilliant, but the effective use of time, and I thought, Oh, I already do that. Okay? I'm ahead of the curve. But because we procrastinate so successfully all the time, you get to the end of your day and you're like, oh, wait, what do I have left to finish? I must finish this in order to feel accomplished. And so you focus whatever you've been dribbling over that list, whatever that is. You dwindle it right down, right? And you're like, I'm a rock star because I got all five of those things done that. If I had done them earlier, look how my day would have went. But you are working on things throughout the day. You're just the day probably starts with things you really love and you're super excited about doing. The middle was like, Okay, I mean, give some time to this. And the end is like, I'm required, and if I don't do this today, tomorrow won't work well, or the next day. And so it made me think of policy from that standpoint, what do we want to have in place five or 10 years from now to make life better for the generations coming behind us, your children. We

Latoschka Nether 19:07
want to make sure that our children have insurance coverage. We want to make sure that our children have access to health care. We want to make sure that

Tanya Flanagan 19:19
in yourself, yes, right? It's your children, but it's also the senior you, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you sort of thing, it's like a so policy that we talked about wrapping up the state legislature recently, and I know that the Cancer Action Network folks were busy. From your perspective, how did it

Latoschka Nether 19:40
go? Well, it could have gone better. We, of course, always there are, there are pieces of legislation that we had hoped to get across the finish line, which we will probably circle back next session. There is the always. A concern over budget and how budget plays a part in our health care and what our health care looks like. There will be a special session coming up in November. I heard

Tanya Flanagan 20:13
no folks. There will be no confirmation on this show today, no confirmation happening here.

Latoschka Nether 20:18
But the notion is that there'll be a few things that'll be readdressed because of the incredible number of vetoes that were handed, handed out by Yeah, at the end of at the end of last session.

Tanya Flanagan 20:36
Yes, well, I'm happy to report what was not vetoed.

Latoschka Nether 20:40
Your legislation was passed and signed. It was congratulations. Thank

Tanya Flanagan 20:44
you. And folks are like, what's that? AB 428, in the spirit of breast cancer, for women diagnosed with breast cancer, ovarian cancer, to be able to access IVF with insurance starting in January of 2027, so it is a little it will be delayed when it starts, but it's signed and it is there, and it will be there. And

Latoschka Nether 21:11
in the grand scheme of things, it's kind of immediate, but, you know,

Tanya Flanagan 21:15
in the grand scheme of things, right, um, and it is, um, I'm excited. You know, it's a finite universe, which probably also helped it to be a pal, you know, acceptable, palatable, pass. But there were so many women who contacted me when I would talk to groups, Planned Parenthood, you and our health education, people just different advocates for women's health, family health, who said to me, that happened to me, I found myself diagnosed at a young age, and it crippled my ability to have a family because the weight of treating the disease, the cancer, and also trying to navigate IVF and the cost of both were just with no without options was too much, and I had a young girl recently diagnosed with breast cancer who also found herself having a hysterectomy, so therefore she was In both boats, right? Thinking, what if I want a child or another child? And I remember having the conversation with her saying, if you have $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 and being able to come back to her and say, I know it's too late for you, but this is on the horizon, and tears welled in her eyes, and she said that you were able to do that. Thank you. So policy. Policy matters.

Latoschka Nether 22:45
Policy

Tanya Flanagan 22:47
matters, yeah, and I mean, your dream, what's your dream? Policy? Because you spend a lot of time in this space, and you see it from a very technical and in depth angle. Well,

Latoschka Nether 22:58
I would like to see us have some more discussion and figure out how we fix the Medicaid debacle that just happened. You know, I have conversations with people every day on how the Medicaid situation doesn't affect them, and I have to explain to them? No, quite frankly, it does affect you, because you know however Medicaid goes, so goes your level of insurance that you have covered. And if Medicaid is gone, if that is cut out, you have to think about the hospitals that are affected. You have to think about the physicians that are affected. And then if you are on private health care now, that becomes your cost, your burden. I mean, it's it. All of the things tie together. And if you are fighting to or considering or think it's a great idea to eliminate one that's gonna cause, it's a cause and effect for the next thing we've got to think about that

Tanya Flanagan 24:03
it's it is interesting when people get into the space of feeling like something is a silo space and they don't think it affects them. It's not my problem when we're all connected and it does affect you from one issue that is life changing to another.

Latoschka Nether 24:24
We say at the American Cancer Society and at the Cancer Action Network is our mission is for all. And if one person is diagnosed with cancer, then that's something that's going to affect the rest of the population. So we don't. We don't sit in a space where we can say, well, you know, well, if that person got it, it doesn't. That's not our issue. That's not no we need, we need all people to. Have access to quality care, to the insurance coverage, to all of the things, to treat cancer,

Tanya Flanagan 25:10
universal care to treat cancer, to treat disease, to treat illness, to treat you period, even if you're healthy. From a preventative standpoint, is something that we should be able to achieve. We're getting into the last few minutes of the show, and I'll share that I had an injury in a foreign country, had surgery in that foreign country, stayed in the hospital everything. I paid for it with with my own money, because I was in a foreign country, but it cost me less than 6000 US dollars for a three day stay with every doctor, nurse, therapist that I needed to see, including medication in a private room, and it was less than 6000 US dollars. So you know, why can't we quite figure this out to have universal care, to appreciate, respect and understand the value of universal care, but also how it's really probably all of ours responsibility. In order to make that a reality, I want to make sure people know about the upcoming event that will happen out of Red Rock, yes, and also have you repeat the survey of access

Latoschka Nether 26:20
to so you're talking about the making strides for breast cancer. Making

Tanya Flanagan 26:23
Strides for breast cancer event, yes, on October 19,

Latoschka Nether 26:28
which you are an honoree for that event, and we thank you for your support and participation.

Tanya Flanagan 26:36
You're welcome, and thank you for having me as the honoree this year for the Making Strides for breast cancer event. And today, I know which Sunday it is. The other day I had my dates wrong, folks, I'm going to admit that

Latoschka Nether 26:49
it's tricky. It happens. Calendars full. I

Tanya Flanagan 26:51
was like, I had a Sunday. I didn't have the right Sunday. So on that Sunday morning, October 19, October 19, I'm gonna do something amazing to be here and there. Absolutely, we do what we have to do. And so if you want to participate in the survey for women, 25 to 55 if you're black woman, and you want to take the survey and share information on health and medical histories, to be a part of the black voices movement with the Cancer Action Network looks like

Latoschka Nether 27:25
American Cancer. Yeah, you want to go right to voices of black women. You don't even need the.org favorite search engine. You can look up voices of black women. I

Tanya Flanagan 27:34
love that title, though. It's because it's just simple, catchy and, yeah, and I don't know, even if you were like, I want to have something where I welcome women to talk about it, and Latasha might make an appearance. Where do people keep up with you in one minute or less?

Latoschka Nether 27:53
So I am easy to find you. My email address is latosha.neether@cancer.org. And if you are looking to have someone come and talk with your organization, your school, your church, in reference to this survey or any other policy issue or things related to cancer and what we're doing in the health space, feel free to reach out to me.

Tanya Flanagan 28:23
Thank you. I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for having me and folks, thank you for listening. I know Latasha is a beautiful name, neither, and once you tune into 91.5 jazz and more, you'll be able to see her name spelled. She's easy to find and also on any platform where you listen to podcasts after the show airs, it will be there for you as well. Thank you for tuning in to the show, to another conversation, and I'll see you next week. Until then, stay hydrated. Stay well. Bye for now, I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai