As wife lobbies for colonoscopy bill, Army vet battles cancer while on religious pilgrimage

Amanda Barbosa of St. Paul will sit in the U.S. House Chamber on Tuesday evening as Sen. Amy Klobuchar's guest at the State of the Union address. Barbosa will be there because her husband's brush with mortality turned her into a fierce advocate to improve military health care.

During the past year, Rafael Barbosa has been treated at the Mayo Clinic for stage IV colon cancer, a result of the 23-year military veteran's exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. As his cancer has receded — despite a grim initial prognosis, his most recent scan in November showed no additional spread — the Barbosas pledged to improve military health care and live in the present.

So a month ago, as his wife advocated for federal legislation, Rafael began a nearly 500-mile hike in Spain, a pilgrimage called the Camino de Santiago. He'll end Feb. 11 at the tomb of St. James at Santiago de Compostela.

"With cancer, a single scan can change everything, but we don't want to be defined by the fear of that," Amanda Barbosa said.

Meanwhile, Amanda Barbosa has continued advocating for burn pit victims. As the Barbosas wind through their legal processes — they await an answer to an Army Board for the Correction of Military Records appeal, and they're filing a malpractice suit — she's lobbying for what she believes is common sense, cost-efficient preventative help for others.

The Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022 passed in August to expand health care access for veterans exposed to toxic substances. But earlier screening could help with prevention, Amanda Barbosa said, meaning this new legislation could save taxpayer money and lives.

"You want to make it right for the future," she said. "I don't want any other family to go through this, have their kid see their dad sick, going through chemo and facing death like that."

Klobuchar plans to introduce the Barbosa Act this week to allow active-duty service members exposed to burn pits to get government-funded colonoscopies earlier than the recommended age of 45.

"I didn't want this to be our generation's Agent Orange," Klobuchar said. "I don't think it's a surprise that years later we're starting to see health repercussions from their deployments. Our job is not just to take care of them with equipment or when they're overseas but also when they get home."

Klobuchar lauded the family's selflessness in helping other service members. And last week, Rafael Barbosa answered his phone while walking through a Spanish village, still 125 miles from his destination. He was thrilled about his wife's advocacy.

"I've always seen her as a superstar," he said. "I see a bit of God's hand in this."