These Cancer Patients Couldn’t Go to the Women’s March, So They Had One In the Hospital Instead

With millions of people around the world participating in “sister marches” to Saturday’s Women’s March, people were bound to get creative. And that’s precisely what happened at a hospital near Los Angeles.

Two years ago, Allie Oetken was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer known as Ewing’s Sarcoma. After being in remission for a while, she told ELLE.com, Allie recently had to return to the hospital after doctors found a tumor on her skull. She was bummed to miss out on the march, but ended up participating in a small special one on her floor. She explained in a conversation with ELLE:

[T]hat morning I knew there was going to be multiple women’s marches around the country [and] world and was pretty bummed I wasn’t going to be apart of it, especially since my friends were going to the LA one. Well in the middle of my wallowing, I heard another lady squeaking down the hallway chanting something so I went out and joined her and we had put together signs that say “Freedom for All” and things like that and marched with our IV poles as well as some of the nurses. It was small but very meaningful that I got to feel part of it and protest the new President and the gross rhetoric and behavior that comes with his power and followers when I otherwise would have had to stay sick in bed and essentially be silent.

Sounds like a small, but mighty group! Check out the photos in Allie’s tweet:

couldn't make it the LA march today so we had to do our own protest around the hospital (only got 1 floor– we tried tho) #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/AsPIuHVd6K

— allie oetken (@allieoets) January 21, 2017