Monday, April 18, 2016

Cancer and the Candidates


Another election season is upon us and all of the candidates are talking about issues - some serious and some not at all - but none of them has talked about cancer and the toll this horrible disease is taking on our country, and our world.

Cancer is not a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Conservative, Liberal, or Tea Party issue – it is a people issue.  Cancer touches all of us.  11,000 Americans die each week from cancer. That’s unacceptable. What’s worse is that these people do not live in a vacuum. They’re our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends, or in my case, my child, Teddi.  It is as if one of the Twin Towers is falling every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. 

It is pretty hard to understand how we, as a country, have given a blank check to protecting the homeland – to the tune of some 2-3 Trillion Dollars – but if you asked someone if they were more afraid of being attacked by a terrorist or going to the doctor and walking out with a diagnosis of cancer, I would venture to say that cancer is the bigger fear.  And it is no surprise that people are in fear of cancer.  If you are a woman, you have a one in three chance of being diagnosed with cancer, and if you’re a man, the chances are one in two, in your lifetime.  Those are NOT very great odds.

We have the means and the technology to be successful in this endeavor, but we all need to come together to make it happen.  Here at Camp Good Days, we continue to collect signatures on our Cancer Mission 2020 Petition, which supports clinical trials, as clinical trials are where the answers are going to come from.  If you have not visited our Cancer Mission 2020 website, www.cancermission2020.org, I encourage you to do so, and to sign our petition, and then share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and co-workers.  Join us in letting our current and future leaders know that we want finding the answers to cancer put on the front burner.
What greater gift could a President give those of us here in the United States, and people around the globe, than the legacy of having made finding the answers to cancer a priority and successfully completing that mission?