Abigail Simon-Hart is a Nigerian cancer survivor, patient advocate and internationally recognised lived-experience expert, working at the intersection of patient advocacy, healthcare access, cancer care and meaningful patient engagement.

As a cancer survivor who also lost her mother to cancer, Abigail brings both personal and professional insight to her advocacy.
For more than a decade, she has worked to improve the experiences and outcomes of people affected by cancer, supporting patients and families through healthcare access, medical support, education, empowerment, survivorship and other programmes aimed at improving quality of life.

Abigail is a lived-experience expert with the World Health Organization (WHO) and has contributed to global health policy and engagement processes. In Geneva, she chaired a WHO working group that brought together people with lived experience and emergent leaders to develop a Statement of Priorities for People with Lived Experience, informing the framework for meaningful engagement of people living with noncommunicable diseases and mental health and neurological conditions.

She also served as a reviewer for the WHO Global Cancer Status Report 2026 and represented the lived-experience community at the embargoed WHO press conference ahead of the report’s official launch.

Her contribution to patient engagement and advocacy in Nigeria was internationally recognised in 2024, when she received the Made with Patients “Hall of Fame” Award in Baveno, Italy, at the PEOF ( Patient Engagement Open Forum) recognising her work and impact in advancing patient engagement.

Through her work with Bricon Foundation, a Foundation she co- founded in 2016, Abigail has spent years translating lived experience into practical support and advocacy, while also contributing to national, regional and global conversations on cancer, health equity, social participation and patient engagement.

At the heart of Abigail’s advocacy is a simple conviction: patient voices must move beyond being heard to having influence. She is passionate about strengthening patient advocacy and engagement across Africa by transforming lived experience into evidence, policy and action and ultimately into better access to equitable, quality, people-centred healthcare.