Local cancer survivors prepare for rally in D.C.
By ANNE W. ANDERSON
Article published on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006
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| Photo by ANNE W. ANDERSON |
| Heading to Washington, D.C. to lobby for cancer funding and legislation are, seated, from left, Jim West, St. Petersburg; Melanie Cornwell, Dunedin; Roberta Mindykowski, Clearwater; Joanne Bossa, Largo; Cindi Crisci, American Cancer Society; and standing, Lee Patterson, St. Petersburg; Lanny Quinn, Clearwater; Debbie Jacobs, Pinellas Park; Rolfe Duggar, St. Petersburg; Jim Palmer, Tampa; Lynn Webb, American Cancer Society; Dave Tilki, Oldsmar; and Linda Palmer, Tampa. |
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PINELLAS COUNTY – The 13 men and women who gathered recently in Joanne Bossa’s living room had fought a common enemy.
Most had faced a cancer diagnosis, braved surgeries and endured chemotherapies and radiation; others had been caregivers. All will join thousands of others from around the country as ambassadors to their legislators in Washington, D.C. from the American Cancer Society’s issue advocacy organization, Cancer Action NetworkSM,
“This disease is nuts. It affects everybody,” said Bossa, 53, a 17-year cancer survivor.
Bossa and the others have been selected to represent cancer survivors living in Congressional Districts 9, 10, and 11.
They will visit Washington, D.C., on Sept. 19 to 20 for a two-day event, Celebration on the Hill 2006. Called ambassadors, the delegates will visit senators and representatives from their districts to ask for their support in a number of areas.
Ambassadors also will meet other cancer survivors from all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico. As at local Relay for Life rallies, luminaries will be lit in memory of those who have died and in honor of survivors.
First, however, the local ambassadors wanted to meet each other. After introductions, local ACS representatives Lynn Webb and Cindi Crisci took turns telling the group what to expect at the training in August and at the September event.
This is the second such celebration. Several of the current ambassadors also attended the 2002 event and told others what to expect.
“I experienced a kind of serenity at the last relay,” said Jim West, St. Petersburg, and Bossa and Debbie Jacobs, Pinellas Park, nodded in agreement.
St. Petersburg attorney Rolfe Duggar, who has volunteered with the ACS for 46 years, explained that the House and the Senate buildings aren’t next to each other.
“You’ll be doing a lot of walking,” Duggar said.
Information supplied by the ACS credits the 2002 event with Congress’s doubling the budget for the National Institute of Health, adding $439 million new federal dollars to various cancer screening and outreach programs and securing various cancer-related Medicare benefits.
In 2005, 92 senators and 280 representatives signed a letter to the President in support of the ACS’s goal of “eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by the year 2015.” Senators Martinez and Nelson signed the letter, as did Representatives Davis, Bilirakis and Young.
Ambassadors will meet with congressmen at their home offices during the August recess to encourage them to sign the ACS and CAN’s Congressional Cancer Promise 2006-2007 during the September rally.
The promise calls for legislators to, among other things, make health system reform a priority, to remove Medicare co-pays for colorectal and breast cancer screening, to provide increased funding to the National Cancer Institute and to increase access to cancer screening to low-income, uninsured individuals ages 50 to 64.
Ambassadors applied by writing an essay telling why they wanted this two-year commitment that involves other advocacy, fundraising, and recruitment obligations. Ambassadors’ airfare and food and lodging expenses at the rally are paid by the ACS and CAN.
Visit www.celebrationonthehill.org for more information.
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Article published on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006
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