Can­cer touch­es al­most every fam­i­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go, of­ten qui­et­ly, some­times sud­den­ly, but al­ways pro­found­ly. Be­hind the sta­tis­tics, screen­ing cam­paigns and fundrais­ing dri­ves are in­di­vid­u­als who have car­ried the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of steer­ing in­sti­tu­tions through grief, hope, lim­it­ed re­sources and grow­ing pub­lic ex­pec­ta­tion. One such in­di­vid­ual is Robert Du­mas, for­mer chair­man of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety, whose tenure co­in­cid­ed with an ex­pand­ing na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion about can­cer pre­ven­tion, pa­tient sup­port and the role of civ­il so­ci­ety in pub­lic health.