In 2024, we introduced our newest speaker series, “Diverse Experiences of Cancer.” The series aims to spotlight the diverse journeys and perspectives of individuals navigating cancer within underrepresented communities. By amplifying these voices, we hope to foster greater understanding, empathy, and support for those facing similar challenges. Our next talk will focus on 2SLGBTQ+ stories and their unique experiences within cancer care.
Cancer Beyond the Binary
Cancer Beyond the Binary explores how transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse individuals navigate oncology systems and supports that often marginalize or overlook their needs within a deeply gendered healthcare framework. Join panelists Rae Spoon, Tet Millare, and Mike Hooves as they share their lived experiences as transgender cancer patients, in conversation with facilitator Zack Marshall, offering insight, reflection, and a call for more inclusive and affirming cancer care within the medical system, support spaces, and within queer and trans spaces.
For those interested and available, you can join us at Carma House (1404 Home Road, Calgary) or online, where we will stream the speaker live followed by a social time with the panelists.
Meet the Panelists
Mike Hooves (they/them) is a Stage III, ER+ breast cancer patient, navigating the system of gendered cancer as a non-binary thirty-something-year old. Mike created the comic Enby Breast Cancer to share their experiences at the narrow intersection of an enby breastie.
Tet Millare (they/them) is both full-time an admin assistant and an artist of various expressions. Tet had breast cancer back in 2019. Tet is no health expert but if there’s anything they would like to primarily share to others is the importance of advocating for your own healthcare choices and bodily autonomy.
Rae Spoon (they/them) is a non-binary/trans musician and author with multiple disabilities. Rae was diagnosed and underwent treatment for advanced cervical cancer in 2020 in Victoria, BC. Complications resulted in multiple new conditions, surgeries and a 14-month hospital stay. In fall 2026, Rae’s book Cancer Person will be published in 2026 (Arsenal Pulp Press). It chronicles their healthcare journey as a trans person with a gendered cancer in a system that was not equipped to be respectful of their human rights. Rae is an uninvited guest and settler with European ancestry on stolen land. They grew up on Treaty 7 territory in Calgary (the traditional and ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy: Kainai, Piikani and Siksika as well as the Tsuu T’ina Nation and Stoney Nakoda First Nation). Rae currently lives between Toronto (the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples) and Montréal (the unceded Indigenous lands of the Mohawk Nation).
By bringing together experts and individuals with lived experiences, we hope to come together to learn more about the values, strengths, and unique needs of these communities.
