Pleased to announce that California Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson will again be authoring For Grace's annual resolution that will proclaim September as Pain Awareness Month and September 4th (our conference date) as Women In Pain Awareness Day. Also, we're in meetings with Senator Jackson and her staff about a bill that will fortify pain education requirements in the state's medical schools as a follow up to For Grace's 2019 Capitol legislative briefing.

February's Story of the Month is our first in a series that spotlights the connection between chronic pain and cancer. Tom Norris' career in the military came to an abrupt end after developing excruciating chronic pain from radiation treatment for testicular cancer. With the help of the love of his life, Marianne, they journeyed for three decades to find pain management to regain quality of life. Part of that path was Tom becoming an advocate for those battling chronic pain, and his inspiring take-away is "There is always hope for a better day!"

As part of For Grace's 2020 focus on the chronic pain-cancer connection, we'll be spotlighting themed stories for our Share Your Story page. If you're experiencing or have experienced both pain and cancer, please submit your story (400 words or less) with a photo so we can feature it as a Story of the Month. Thank you in advance for helping us bring to light this under-appreciated connection - and please send submissions to forgracewip@yahoo.com.

A great article about the For Grace co-sponsored CRPS survey ran yesterday on the National Pain Report penned by editor-in-chief Ed Coghlan. As a result of tremendous outreach from all-on-deck advocacy organizations and this article, we've already received over 1,150 responses - and we expect many more. If you are or have been challenged by CRPS, please take this survey to help drive better understanding which will lead to more research and improved life outcomes.