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ACTION Students Tackle Cancer Through Storytelling · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking FACS, and thank you for tuning in to Cancer Conversations
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  on Talking FACS, a podcast collaboration between the University of Kentucky
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  Markey Cancer Center and the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture,
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  Food and Environment's Cooperative Extension Service.
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  We will share with you the latest developments in cancer prevention,
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  diagnosis, treatment and research from the experts at Markey Cancer Center,
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  Kentucky's only National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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  Talking FACS is hosted by the UK Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS.
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  I am your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  I'm so glad to be joined today by Dr.
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  Nathan Vanderford, who is the Associate Professor of Toxicology and Cancer Biology
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  and the Director of the Action Program.
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  And he has brought along a couple of students.
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  So, Nathan, do you want to introduce those students to us?
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  Absolutely, Mindy. Thanks for having us. We really appreciate the opportunity
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  to be here and talk with you as always.
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  So two students are here today, Kameron Jackson and Matthew Sanders.
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  So Cameron, why don't you introduce yourself first?
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  Thank you, Dr. Vanderford. My name is Kameron Jackson. Like you said,
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  I am a junior slash senior at the University of Kentucky, majoring in neuroscience.
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  I'll be going to pharmacy school next year, and I've been involved in action
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  throughout my entire undergrad career.
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  So it's been a super fun process, super rewarding, and I'm really glad to be here today.
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  All right. Thank you, Kameron. Matthew? Hi, my name is Matthew Sanders.
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  I'm a senior from London, Kentucky, majoring in agricultural and medical biotechnology.
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  Also an accepted student into the UK College of Medicine class of 2030,
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  where I'll be attending next fall.
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  I have been a member of the ACTION program as both the high school and now have
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  completed it as an undergraduate student.
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  And thank you guys very much for having me today. I'm very excited.
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  I am so delighted to have you all. Before we go any further,
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  Nathan, would you explain what the ACTION program is?
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  Yeah, so ACTION stands for the Appalachian Career Training and Oncology Program.
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  It's a program funded by the National Institutes of Health that engages high
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  school and undergraduate students from any of the 54 counties in Eastern Kentucky
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  that are in the Appalachian region in cancer education and training activities.
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  So we recruit students, high school and undergrad students from Eastern Kentucky,
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  get them involved in cancer research, cancer education, clinical shadowing activities,
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  and outreach, all here at UK.
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  We get them involved in these activities with world-class cancer researchers.
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  Clinical providers, and outreach specialists, and educators,
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  and everything in between.
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  So Kameron, as a student in the ACTION program, what has been your most rewarding experience?
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  That's honestly such a difficult question for me to answer just because I feel
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  like everything I've had the privilege to be able to do with ACTION has been so rewarding.
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  I obviously joining the program and kind of getting a hand in outreach and education
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  that we are able to do through the program has been super rewarding because
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  I've been able to have fruitful conversations with other people about cancer
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  and cancer in our region specifically.
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  That I don't think I would have been fully equipped without ACTION's help.
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  You know, I don't think I would have been able to do so as effectively without
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  ACTION's help. But also, ACTION is so multifaceted.
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  We also have a high school program, which I think Dr. Vanderford may have mentioned,
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  but I had the privilege to serve as their peer mentor this past summer.
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  And I know Matthew's done it before, too, and it is the best experience ever
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  because we kind of get to help the kids in their first exposure to cancer research
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  labs and shadowing experiences and all kinds of things and kind of just be there
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  for them as like a listening ear and a guide and a mentor.
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  And so that was honestly one of the best experiences I've ever had in general, action specific.
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  But in general, it was such an awesome experience. And I think that that was
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  definitely probably one of my favorites.
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  So, Matthew, as you've been involved in ACTION, have you been able to do something
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  that maybe helped you step out of your comfort zone?
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  Yes, I would like to agree with everything that Cameron just said.
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  I would also like to add that working in a research lab has been very rewarding for me.
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  I've been able to work as a researcher since the high school program,
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  and then being able to work with Dr.
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  Gow, my mentor, who has been a great mentor for me, both professionally and
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  personally, has allowed me to do things that I've never imagined being able to do.
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  Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, I've always had a strong interest in science,
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  but just having the opportunity to work in an actual lab is something that I
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  never had the opportunity to do before the ACTION program.
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  And being part of this program has allowed me to work directly with faculty
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  from Markey and work on my own independent project under an NCI-designated Comprehensive Care Center.
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  And having this opportunity as an undergraduate student has just been career-changing.
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  Of course, I was very nervous walking into a lab.
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  I started out as just a high school student who's never actually even touched a pipette before.
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  So being able to walk into one of these labs and develop throughout the years,
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  have my own project and work with great faculty has really been a very rewarding
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  experience here with the ACTION program. I think that's fabulous.
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  And I love hearing the excitement in both of your voices, because I do think
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  that that is something that so many students never have the opportunity,
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  even maybe throughout their college career, to do some of the things that you all have done.
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  So, Nathan, as you are working with students, both at the high school and the
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  college level, how do you all select the students that get to participate?
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  Yeah, we have an application that goes out across the eastern Kentucky land.
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  We send those to high schools, to high school teachers, counselors.
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  We've sent it out to other places also, and the program coordinator goes out to recruitment events.
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  She's actually out recruiting today at a high school, actually.
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  That's why she's not here with us.
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  So she goes and she meets with students at high schools, and we've been targeting,
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  in the last couple years, we've been targeting counties where we haven't yet had students.
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  We'd like to cover every, all 54 counties sooner rather than later.
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  So we have a few counties that we haven't yet covered.
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  So she's boots on the ground out there in Eastern Kentucky, recruiting directly
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  from those schools that we haven't had students from yet.
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  So I know today that we're specifically talking about one of your favorite projects
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  that your ACTION students get to do.
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  Do you want to tell us a little bit about the book? Yeah, so in addition to
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  the students having an opportunity to go into labs, learn about cancer in the classroom,
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  do clinical shadowing in ORs and clinics and all kinds of other spaces and doing
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  outreach in the community, we've done some unique projects that we do.
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  Hope helps students learn about cancer in other unique ways.
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  So one of those projects is a writing project, which is turned into four books, actually.
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  So we've had students in the first two books write personal stories about how
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  they or their families have been impacted by cancer.
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  They also talked about why they think cancer rates are so bad in Kentucky,
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  and then what they think needs to be done to fix the problems.
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  And then in the most recent two books, including the one that was just published
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  in August of 2025, we've had students write realistic fictional stories about
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  cancer in Eastern Kentucky.
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  And so the mission was write a story that you could see happening in your family
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  or your community from a fictional standpoint. It had to be as realistic as
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  it possibly could be, right?
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  I mean, all the clinical details and social, economic details around causes
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  and consequences of cancer and how it's treated and, you know,
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  how the disease progresses, all that had to be realistic.
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  And so students have done a phenomenal job once again,
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  and we're delighted to have a new book
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  published and the goal is this is
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  it's a learning opportunity for students they learn about
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  cancer in their communities in a different way in a creative artistic way and
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  then once they've written the stories and we've published the book it becomes
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  a community outreach and engagement opportunity and a community education opportunity
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  where readers will learn more about the cancer issues in Kentucky.
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  Specifically in Eastern Kentucky, the causes of the high rates of cancer and
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  how people deal with that.
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  I love that you are doing it this way, first of all, because I love reading,
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  and second of all, because I love writing. And I find that that is a great way
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  to process feelings and to process some of the things that we don't always make sense of.
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  And certainly, cancer is something that's sometimes hard to wrap your head around.
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  And so putting it down on paper and kind of figuring it out is a great way to
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  help students look at it in a tangible way.
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  Before they have to look at it in the patients that they will see when they
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  become doctors or other researchers.
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  Absolutely. 100%. So as you all, Cameron and Matthew, went through the process
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  of writing your stories, what did you learn about yourselves or about cancer
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  that you want to share with us?
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  Well, I think that this project was such an exciting thing for me because obviously
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  I love science. I love the numbers. I love all the crazy in-depth things like that.
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  But at the end of the day, I think that the most effective way to better at
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  least like the awareness of the cancer crisis is to talk about it and communicate.
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  And I think that art can be a really beautiful tool. Art and writing can be
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  really beautiful tools to kind of get your message across. others.
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  So I kind of learned in the process that I'm able to still kind of express myself
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  creatively while talking about something that is so impactful.
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  And while my story wasn't necessarily pertinent to myself, or it wasn't, like Dr.
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  Vanderford said, these are fictional stories, I could see, you know,
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  one of my best friends in my story, or, you know, like an older person from
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  my community and kind of just see how they might resonate with it.
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  And so I feel like it kind of I kind of learned an
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  even greater appreciation for the people of my community and of Appalachian
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  Kentucky in general and so it was honestly just the writing process was such
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  a wonderful experience and I would do it all again if I could definitely Matthew
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  is there something that you learned specifically while writing.
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  Yes, there's been a few things. First of all, even though mine is a fictional
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  story, I have taken accounts from some different people in helping write my story.
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  Specifically, one of the characters in my story is Lucy, based upon my great-grandfather.
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  And doing this project allowed me to meet with my family and I guess learn more
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  about my family history, which was very interesting.
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  And being able to have these conversations, you don't always have these conversations,
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  especially in Appalachian, Kentucky, where you sit down and you talk about how
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  cancer affected you and affected your family.
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  And I think that a project like this actually served as a catalyst not only
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  to learn about my family history, but just about these types of conversations.
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  And having a project like this book allows us to talk about these things that
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  we're not always comfortable talking about.
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  And it brings things like cancer actually into our conversation,
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  just like at the dinner table with my family.
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  And that's one of the big things that I think that outreach through action has
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  been meant to do and has been able to do. That's an excellent point.
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  Well, if I can add to that, I, for example, this past weekend was,
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  and I was home and I got to give my grandparents a book and show them like,
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  here's my story. Like you can read it if you want to.
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  And they were so excited, of course, because there was something with their
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  baby's name on it. And so the next day I went back to their house and we just kind of talked about it.
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  And, you know, we were able to have a conversation about experiences that they've
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  kind of seen with their friends or with themselves or with people around them.
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  And I just, even though my grandparents are some of the most important people
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  in my life, I don't think we would have ever been able to get to that conversation,
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  at least not as easily and smoothly, without this book.
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  And I just thought that it was a really beautiful thing.
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  That is. That is wonderful. And sometimes having something to start the conversation
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  is the catalyst that we need, as Matthew said.
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  I love that you all both joined me.
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  And Nathan, I'm not sure that we went where you wanted to with this conversation,
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  but I love where we went with it. So I hope it worked for you.
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  It's great. I love it. We will link both.
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  Matthew and Cameron's stories in our show notes, so you can listen to them read
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  their story, and that will give you the opportunity to hear what they had to share.
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  And then we'll also link where you can find the whole book and purchase that for yourself.
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  Before we wrap up, any last thoughts? I just want to thank you and Extension for the opportunity.
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  You know, as you know, I think you know I'm an Ag alum, so anytime that I can
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  still do things with the College of Ag, I love it. So I really appreciate the opportunity.
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  Thank you. We always love having our students, Matthew, and our graduates,
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  Nathan, to share with us.
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  And Cameron, we will bring you into the fold anytime you want to be here.
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  Hey, I don't, I mean, I hope the arts and sciences is also happy to have me.
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  Well, thank you all for the time that you have spent with me today.
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  Thank you. Thank you so much for having us.
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  And if you are just tuning in, you're listening to Cancer Conversations on Talking
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• 15:55
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• 16:10
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• 16:29
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