To my fellow long‑term survivors — especially those treated with Cobalt‑60 in the 1950s–70s

Longtermsurvivor 1

If you’ve ever felt forgotten by the medical system, please know this: you’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone.

Many of us were treated as children in the 1960s and 70s with the best tools available at the time — Cobalt‑60 radiation and early chemotherapy. We were the early survivors, the ones who proved childhood cancer could be beaten.

But once we reached adulthood, the system didn’t know what to do with us.Follow‑up programs ended around age 39.Registries stopped tracking us.And many of us never received information about the long‑term effects that might appear decades later.

Some survivors today are dealing with heart issues, vascular problems, endocrine changes, or second cancers — and they’re being told it’s “just aging.” But many of these issues were documented as late effects as early as the 1970s.

I’m currently filing FOIA requests with national agencies to understand why survivors from our era were never systematically followed or informed, and whether the science used to support other radiation‑exposed groups has ever been applied to medical survivors like us.

If you were treated with Cobalt‑60 or early radiation, I’d love to connect.You don’t need to share personal details — just your decade of treatment, the hospital if you remember it, and any long‑term issues you believe may be related. I’m gathering contacts to share resources, FOIA templates, and to help survivors find each other.

You’re not “failing” at getting older.You’re living through consequences that deserve understanding and support.

We were the pioneers.It’s time we were seen again.