DeLoatch-Speight said she hopes to continue on a healthy journey. "My grandson turned one year old on Saturday and I want to be here to see him graduate high school," DeLoatch-Speight said.

Cancer survivor Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Charles Felder said his early detection of prostate cancer was key.

"If I was not a service member and not required to do annual physicals, not having it be free where you can just go right in, I don't know if I'd be in the same position," Felder said. "I just went in as a routine, sure enough, there it was."

Dr. Jie Lin, a senior epidemiologist with the USU Murtha Cancer Center Research ProgramUSU Murtha Cancer Center Research Program website, explained during the roundtable discussion that studies have shown greater chances of cancer survival are found in those seeking treatment in the Military Health System (MHS).

"Access to healthcare has a large impact on cancer survival. However, in the U.S. general population, healthcare access is not equal to everyone and this disparity affects cancer care and, therefore, survival," Lin said. "In contrast to this unequal healthcare access in the general population, the military health care system provides universal health care to beneficiaries. Therefore, in the MHS, barriers to healthcare are minimized or reduced and survival is expected to be better."

Lin said the study into this issue shows MHS patients had better survival rates than patients from the general population. This includes lung cancer, with MHS cancer patients having 22 percent lower deaths than patients from the general population.

"And for breast cancer, 24 percent lower risks of death, for prostate cancer an overall 26 percent lower risk of deaths for MHS patients compared to the general population," Lin said. She added that the colon cancer risk was 18 percent lower, and brain cancer showed a 26 percent reduction in death compared to the general public.

According to Lin, the study suggests that universal health care improves cancer survival across the board.

"A Really Difficult Conversation"

Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Jabara of the U.S. Public Health Service said she's spent her career helping, and volunteering her time, to those who have cancer.

"I'm a nurse by profession and have spent my entire career inspired by my grandfather's cancer journey and caring for cancer patients in a variety of ways from the bedside to the National Institutes of Health doing research," Jabara said. "…In addition to the work I was doing professionally, I also spent so much of my time volunteering for the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society."

Jabara affirmed that cancer can happen to anybody. After she recently gave birth to her second child, doctors discovered a tumor had formed alongside her pregnancy. After testing, she discovered it was cancerous.

"'And now you've got this big C diagnosis with a newborn at home and a three-year-old and a husband' … it doesn't discriminate, it happens to people just like us sitting at this table," Jabara said.

"And it took me a moment to be able to say those words, and I'm sure others can share this sentiment — the first time you have to call someone and say 'so I have cancer,' is a really difficult conversation."

Jabara said like the others at the table she found herself on a journey that none of them wanted to be on. She added that she hopes her experience with cancer while at discussions like the roundtable allows her to speak to the patient experience in a different way.

"It's all about conversation …more than anything, this is just the beginning of a much larger conversation that we'll all continue to come to the table for, so we can make a great difference," Jabara said. "and hopefully we won't need a Moonshot 4 or 5 and we get it done this time."