Conflict is not a sign something has gone wrong. It’s simply what happens whenever people with different needs, beliefs and backgrounds try to work toward the same goal. That was the reassuring starting point for “Conflict management within an organisation” a workshop on Advocates Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong, led by Eric Sampson, Partner at Dramatic Difference.
Eric opened with a personal note: his own mother was successfully treated for bladder cancer,
No organisation, however small, has to do everything alone. That was the starting point for “Building collaboration and partnerships,” a workshop on Advocates Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong, led by Adam Lynch, CEO of BEAT Bladder Cancer Australia, and Mădălina Iamandei, Executive Director of All.Can International, the multi-stakeholder cancer care coalition that WBCPC itself belongs to.
Why partnerships matter more than ever
Mădălina opened with a fact worth remembering: All.Can now spans 18 national coalitions and around 50 member organisations,
A photo with the health minister feels like progress. It usually isn’t. That was the opening line from Richard Vines, co-founder of Rare Cancers Australia, speaking on Advocates Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong. What actually moves outcomes for patients, he told the room, is not the photo. It’s everything that happens around it.
Everyone in the room is already doing advocacy
Richard opened by pushing back on a common assumption: that advocacy is something only policy specialists do.
Facebook group with no funding and no government contacts. A seat on the committee that decides which cancer drugs Taiwan’s national health insurance will pay for. That’s the distance the Taiwan Young Patient Association (TYPA) has travelled since 2017, and at Advocates Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong, its Secretary General, Eric Liu, walked our members through exactly how.
From support group to seat at the table
TYPA started when Eric’s co-founder,
Would you fund a new bladder cancer drug that costs two and a half times more than the current treatment, works a little better, and comes with no proof yet that it helps people live longer? That was the question facing WBCPC members on Advocates Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong, during a hands-on workshop, “Health Technology Assessment for patient advocates,” led by Fiona Pearce,
On Advocates Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong, Alex Filicevas, Executive Director of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition (WBCPC), and Lori Cirefice, President of WBCPC, sat down for a conversation about what it takes to truly support the Coalition’s members.
Lori opened with her own story. In 2013, when her husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer, they were living in the south of France with no patient organisation to turn to.
Advocates Day at the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong made room for a subject every organisation in the room is already wrestling with. In a workshop titled “AI tools for patient advocates: a practical introduction” Theodoros Yfantis, WBCPC Project Coordinator, set out where artificial intelligence can genuinely help an advocacy team, and where it should be kept well away.
He began by taking the mystery out of it.
Advocates Day at the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong turned to what members have actually built, with four organisations presenting projects that worked at home and could work elsewhere. None of us holds a monopoly on good ideas, and the session ran on a simple assumption: the most useful resource in the room is often something another member has already tried.
The World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 opened today in Hong Kong, the first time our Forum has been held in Asia. Advocates travelled from Senegal, Kenya, Malawi, Colombia, Argentina, Japan, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, South Africa and across Europe to be in the room together. The keynote session brought together Lori Funk Cirefice, President of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition (WBCPC) and of Cancer Vessie France, and Dr Ka-On Lam,
The World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition (WBCPC) has expanded its Italian-language resources with the publication of its full series of bladder cancer factsheets, supporting access to reliable, patient-friendly information for Italian-speaking communities.
This work builds on WBCPC’s ongoing collaboration with our member organisation PaLiNUro, whose expertise and local insight have been central to ensuring the factsheets are accurate, accessible and relevant for patients and families in Italy.
Access to clear information remains a key challenge for many people affected by bladder cancer,
For general information, information about membership or policy information, please contact the WBCPC Secretariat at info@worldbladdercancer.org
For general information, information about membership or policy information, please contact the WBCPC Secretariat at info@worldbladdercancer.org
