Showing Lawmakers the Face of Cancer Survivorship
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2002–Breast cancer survivor Elizabeth Savard has participated in many “Relay for Life” walks around her home in Methuen, but never in the nation’s capital.
She has also never shared her story of survivorship and hope for a cure with a congressman.
On Thursday, she did both.
Savard found a receptive ear on Capitol Hill Thursday as one of four Massachusetts volunteers for the American Cancer Society to visit with Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass. Other volunteers met with other state lawmakers.
The goal of the visits was to ask for support from lawmakers in increasing the budgets of cancer research organizations such as the National Cancer Institute and programs of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, they asked lawmakers to pass the Eliminate Colorectal Cancer Act.
A constituent of Meehan’s, Savard was visibly excited when the congressman said he would like to do better than President Bush’s proposal to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health over the next five years; he would like it to triple.
Meehan has been fighting cancer on the tobacco front, drafting legislation to control tobacco sales and limit the exposure of tobacco advertising to minors. He is currently working on a bill to ensure that children cannot make tobacco purchases over the Internet.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also has been working on cancer legislation. Tuesday, Kennedy introduced legislation calling for better survivorship care and for a study of the quality of cancer care. At the announcement of the legislation, Kennedy appeared with four-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer.
Lining up legislative support was only one facet of the first-ever event. Throughout the day, cancer survivors, caregivers and others affected by cancer walked laps around the Capitol’s reflecting pool.
Later in the evening, the pool was to be lined by thousands of candles honoring cancer patients and survivors.
“This will be like a pebble in a pond,” Savard said. “We’ll start with this and it will resonate out like ripples.”
Since Savard beat her cancer six years ago, she has become part of a support network in Massachusetts. She matches newly diagnosed women with survivors in the area.
“When I first heard I was diagnosed, I was overwhelmed. I felt I was the only one,” Savard said. “Then I got a call from a survivor, and it was a relief to know I wasn’t alone.”
Savard has stayed in touch with the woman who gave her support. They were the same age – 29 years old at the time.
According to the American Cancer Society, 4,700 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer each year, a ripple in a pool of 1.2 million new cases of all kinds of cancer each year, 31,700 of which are in Massachusetts. Each year, 555,500 die from cancer 13,700 of them in the state.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
