Model Case and Contradictory Case
The final steps in Walker and Avant’s process include designing model and contrary cases
to explicitly embody how the concept of self-advocacy among cancer survivors occurs.
Actual accounts of both self-advocacy and non-self-advocacy have been taken from an
ongoing randomized clinical trial (NIH R01 NR010735) to form substantive exemplars. The
Written Representational Intervention To Ease Symptoms (WRITE Symptoms) is a webbased
symptom management intervention for women with recurrent ovarian cancer
(Donovan et al. 2007). Survivors interact with research nurses over web-based message
boards and as part of the intervention are asked to describe their experiences with trying to
get better control over their symptoms. The message boards of two participants, ‘Judy’ and
‘Anne’ (pseudonyms), demonstrate how the concept of self-advocacy occurs in real-world
situations.