Cancer
Survivor Heads to Washington D.C. to
Advocate for Cancer Research as Part of Effort to
'Give Back'
By Ioana Patringenaru | July 18, 2006
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| Martha Barry's family portrait. Barry, then age 6, is third from the left, standing in front of her parents. |
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When asked why she advocates for cancer research,
Martha Barry pulls out a small black-and-white family
photograph. It shows Barry, then age 6, her 13 siblings,
her mother and her father gathered around a piano,
dressed in their Sunday’s best. Fast forward
44 years, and three of the people in the photograph,
including Barry’s father, have succumbed to
cancer. Another five, including Barry herself, survived
a battle with the deadly disease.
Barry said she plans to take a copy of that family
photograph to Washington, D.C. in September, when
she and 10,000 other volunteers will lobby Congress
to increase funding for cancer research.
“I think we can make such a difference, I think
the government can make such a difference, I think
UCSD researchers can make such a difference,”
she said.
 Barry,
a support services coordinator in the Business and
Financial Services department, will take part in Celebration
on the Hill, a nationwide event organized by the American
Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She works in
the Office of Post Award Financial Services. During
the two-day event, volunteers will meet with their
Congressman and ask for increased federal funding
for the National Institutes of Health, the National
Cancer Institute and the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention. They also will ask Congress to reauthorize
and expand the CDC’s National Breast and Cervical
Cancer Early Detection Program. Barry and several
others will meet with Democratic Congressman Bob Filner.
The American Cancer Society chose Barry to be one
of its voices in Washington D.C. because she has a
strong story to tell, said Selina Travers, a strategic
director with the society’s state office. Barry
also has volunteered for the society for several years,
Travers said.
To hear Barry tell it, it’s all about giving
back, a value that her family always has cherished,
she said.
“You’ve got to give hope to keep hope,”
she said.
Back in September 1999, hope seemed like a rare commodity
in her life. She was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her mother, Gertrude Barry, died of old age that same
month and Barry’s job as a temporary employee
at UCSD was scheduled to end.
But then volunteers from the American Cancer Society
and the Wellness Community, a now-defunct nonprofit
organization, stepped in. Barry said she still keeps
in touch with some of those who helped her seven years
ago. At UCSD, Human Resources and Business and Financial
Services bent over backwards to accommodate her during
her illness, she added. Her boss at the time, Paula
Doss, was very supportive, she said. Asked how she
coped with her illness, Barry points to the three
Fs: faith, family and friends.
A year after she was out of treatment, she became
a volunteer for the American Cancer Society’s
Reach to Recovery program. She recently chaired the
program, which includes about 90 volunteers in all
of San Diego County. As a volunteer, her job description
includes helping patients find free wigs and free
transportation to chemotherapy sessions. She
also steers them toward programs that can help with
their physical and emotional state. She also listens
a lot, she said.
“It’s been a privilege working with these
people,” she said. “You get much more
than you give.”
But Barry also said that she found it much easier
to cope with her own illness than with the illness
of others.
“When you’re the one who has it, you
can fight,” she said. But when a loved one is
sick, a feeling of helplessness creeps in. “You
can only love and support them,” she said.
These feelings have been tested more than once in
Barry’s life. Three of her sisters have battled
breast cancer. Three of her brothers have fought prostate
cancer. Her father, James Barry, succumbed to that
illness in 1994. Then her brother Michael succumbed
to pancreatic cancer in 2002 after battling melanoma
and prostate cancer. As a Vietnam veteran, he was
buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Barry said
she plans to visit his grave during her Washington,
D.C. trip. She also is dedicating her trip to her
sister Diana, who died of lung cancer in April.
“I’ve just got to give back,” she
said.
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