Celebration on the Hill

To the Editor: This September I will join thousands of other cancer advocates in Washington, D.C. for “Celebration on the Hill,” an event of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network. Celebration on the Hill will celebrate cancer survivorship and send a strong message to elected officials that cancer must be made a national policy priority. In 2005, 570,280 people died from cancer nationwide, including 17,860 in New Jersey alone. Yet, Congress last year cut funding for cancer research at the National Cancer Institute for the first time in more than a decade, and this year Congressional leaders are threatening additional cuts. As one of 4,000 Ambassadors who will attend Celebration on the Hill, I will be meeting with my Congressman, Scott Garrett, to urge him to demonstrate a commitment to elevating cancer on the national policy agenda. We will be encouraging lawmakers to sign the Congressional Cancer Promise, which details the specific legislative actions required to put us back on track toward our goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by the year 2015. Last year, 92 U.S. Senators and 280 Members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to the President in support of this goal. Lawmakers now must commit to making the policy decisions necessary to reach that goal, including expanding prevention and detection programs that increase survival rates, boosting medical research funding and ensuring that all Americans have access to all the latest tools for treating cancer. I look forward to joining the thousands of cancer patients, survivors and their families who will participate in Celebration on the Hill. When I lost my brother to cancer seven years ago today, I promised to do everything I could to defeat this disease. This September, I will be asking Congressman Scott Garrett to do the same. Sincerely, Karen C. Faller