The overall cost for cancer last year was $206 billion, which includes $78 billion for medical bills, $18 billion for lost productivity from the illness, and $110 billion due to lost productivity from premature death.
– Lance Armstrong Foundation
Cancer costs us $206 billion a year.
I wonder what would happen if $206 billion was put into cancer research each year?
In the 100 meters men’s track and field final at the Olympics, Usain Bolt won, broke the world record, and was wearing the yellow wristband. What a message! Four years ago the winner wore the band as well.
This is a global movement. It may have started in Austin with our educational resource called “Livestrong.” It may have been born in combination with Nike when they decided to honor Lance in such a big public way. But clearly now this is a movement. A global one. It means so much to so many. It is about overcoming cancer. It is about overcoming any obstacle in your life. It is about living strong. And it belongs to anyone who wants to own a part. It is therefore not the LAF’s movement. It is not Lance’s movement. It is “our” movement. We all share in the work, the committment and the results we desire. Thanks for being a part of your movement and for letting us be a part of it.”
–copied from the Lance Armstrong Foundation blog by Doug Ullman, CEO of LAF and survivor
Yesterday I spent the morning with a famous cancer survivor, Senator Bob Dole, six term senator from Kansas. He was in Raleigh to meet and greet and be photographed with anyone that asked. Sen Bob Dole is immensely popular with people from all walks of life. We toured Cary and Apex, NC in the historic downtown areas and he was like the pied piper. People came pouring from the fire station, the shops, and the restaurants. At age 85, he still has a great sense of humor and reads the Wall Street Journal thoroughly every morning.
Senator Dole and I compared notes on our experience with cancer, mine in 1990 and his in 1991. Walter Shephard, Director of the Cancer Control division of the North Carolina Public Health Department joined us. Walter told us of a cancer-proof mouse they have developed at Bowman-Gray Medical Center at Wake Forest University, a NIH designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers can inject the mice with live cancer viruses and the cancer will not grow. The mouse will not develop cancer. Period.
Great progress is being made in cancer research!
I have been working very hard since returning from the Lance Armstrong Summit to get out the word on Vote Yellow! I truly think that if we believe we can influence Congress and legislation, we can. We have a spokesperson and leader that is focusing our efforts and we have never had that luxury before. Lance Armstrong has done for cancer what no one else could have done. Now it is up to us to get behind his efforts and talk about cancer funding to everyone in our life and look for ways to talk to others. The first issue is to get everyone registered to vote. Less than half of eligible Americans actually vote!
I am working for the Elizabeth Dole reelection campaign and I am combining the two efforts. What I learn from one, I use to help the other. The events I attend for Dole get me in front of the right people to make a difference. Each of us has a sphere of influence. With 12 M survivors, that is a lot of influence!
I have just returned from the LAF Summit in Columbus, Ohio. 1000 delegates from across the US were chosen to be there. We were chosen because we are cancer activists and had demonstrated that we want to make a difference. I also attended the Summit held in 2006 in Austin Texas.
The Summit was definitely a life-altering event! We were there from Thursday July 24th to Sunday 27th. On Thursday night we kicked things off with a Town Hall Meeting at the Ohio State University Campus with Senator John McCain addressing us and answering questions from Lance Armstrong and delegates. Both presidential candidates were invited to attend. Senator Obama lost his mother to ovarian cancer and Senator McCain is a three time melanoma survivor. The LAF goal is for the next president to take the oath of office while holding up a Yellow Wrist-banded hand!!
The time flew by as we met in one of three interest tracks–Advocacy, Fundraising, or Elections. I was in Elections. We were instructed by several experts in how to make a difference in the political arena. After all, major funding from the Federal and State governments is what will ultimately win the war on cancer. We have made phenomenal progress in the last ten years and about 70% of cancers are now cured. The remaining 30% of patients can often be maintained for a number of years of good quality life. A few cancers have not made as much progress as the rest, primarily lung and pancreatic, and we have much to do to cure all cancers.
The LAF brought together the 1000 delegates to be trained in how to facilitate a grassroots campaign to Vote Yellow, ie find out how each candidate sees funding for cancer research. Will they make funding for cancer research a priority for our country? Are they willing to allow cancer funding to remain flat or decrease as it has in the last three years? Are they willing to allow 560,000 of us to die each year for lack of research and lack of the best treatment currently available? We want to get each candidate on record and plan to make them accountable, once they are elected, to fulfill these promises for additional funding to cancer research and treatment.
Texas approved Proposition 15 in 2007 and this provides funding to cancer research of $3 billion. NC approved cancer funding of $50 million per year. There are 48 states left to step up to the plate……..
The Livestrong Army will be going out into our neighborhoods and churches, community events, sporting events, state fairs, festivals, political groups, support groups, civic groups and anywhere else we find Americans. We will be asking them to wear a Yellow Bracelet to demonstrate their commitment to Vote Yellow! If you will join this effort, go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation website and volunteer. www.livestrong.org
If you will help spread the word to your friends and neighbors, and they talk to their friends and family, the word will quickly spread that Americans are no longer willing to lose 1500 citizens a day to cancer. Be part of the solution to cancer. Livestrong!
Suzan Maddox, 18 year breast cancer survivor
