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.
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?
