Most people don’t know that you’re considered a cancer survivor at the moment of diagnosis. It wasn’t always this way. Sixty years ago, a cancer diagnosis was a death sentence. And if you did survive, you were left to figure out the rest of your life on your own.

But some survivors demanded something different, something better.

This is The Cancer Mavericks, a deep-dive narrative into the people who fought for better treatment, forced doctors to listen, and pushed America to see the human side of the disease.

Episodes of this series will publish monthly through the end of December 2021 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National Cancer Act of 1971.