Personal Loss Inspires Volunteer to Fight for Access to Care

For Hollis, a volunteer at Clinic by the Bay, the path to healthcare advocacy began long before he ever stepped into a clinic. As a child, he walked home from school with his grandmother, who carried a cane in one hand and a black garbage bag in the other. Together, they stopped at public trash cans to collect aluminum cans. Hollis thought it was a game. In truth, the five cents per can helped pay for his grandmother’s insulin.

Years later, Hollis would face an even more painful reality. Sitting in an emergency room, he translated the words “stage IV lung cancer” into Cantonese for his father, who had avoided doctors for years out of fear of the cost and of what might already be wrong. Two weeks later, his father was gone.

That loss propelled Hollis toward a mission to ensure that others in his community would not endure the same fate. As a scribe at Clinic by the Bay, he heard stories that mirrored his own family’s experiences: years without medical care, language barriers, and the constant fear of being turned away for lack of insurance or immigration status.

One morning, Hollis met Mr. R, a warehouse worker who arrived at the clinic with severe back pain. He had continued working through the discomfort, worried more about missing work than the growing pain. By the time he sought help, his condition had become much harder to treat. Hollis realized that simply having healthcare available was not enough. Patients also needed guidance to navigate the system and reassurance that they would not be denied care.

That understanding led him to expand his role in healthcare advocacy. At San Francisco General Hospital’s Children’s Health Center, he helped families secure Medi-Cal coverage and connected them to food and housing resources. He recalls assisting the mother of a nine-month-old who had recently lost her insurance while managing her own Type 2 diabetes. This time, Hollis could intervene and make a difference.

For Hollis, the work is both professional and deeply personal. “True care begins with listening, advocating, and meeting people where they are,” he said. “I want to be a bridge between fear and hope.”

Clinic by the Bay counts itself fortunate to have volunteers like Hollis, whose dedication is rooted in lived experience and a steadfast belief that healthcare is a human right.