Discovery Channel Special Follow-up

Sunday night was a powerful night. It was inspiring to share the stage with two amazing people - Leroy Sievers and Elizabeth Edwards. Both are the embodiment of the word survivor.

It was also powerful to be surrounded by all the members of the audience - from fellow survivors to doctors to nurses - all of them had a story to tell of how they affect this fight. I was struck by how each of them had found their place in this fight and how many separate and distinct organizations they represent. Without doing much research on it, I would feel safe in saying there are hundreds of organizations and millions of people “fighting cancer” everyday.

A few days ago I read an article in the New York Times about how all of the various anti-war groups in the U.S. have come together to work toward a common goal - ending the war in Iraq. Whether you agree or not with their focus, the article illustrates a great point about the power of the collective voice.

As I listened on Sunday it reinforced for me the notion that we as a community - the cancer community - are divided. I don’t mean to suggest that the work that is being done is unimportant or insufficient but that it is - well divided. Our work is divided by geographic regions, body parts, genders. etc. but as a community we have a unique opportunity before us.

As we move toward the 2008 elections we have a chance to come together and make cancer a national priority. We have a chance to demand that our next President have a serious plan of how to deal with a disease that will kill 560,000 Americans this year alone. We have a chance to force the hand of our Senators and Representatives to make them sign legislation that will be powerful enough to save hundreds of thousands of lives. We have a chance to demand that corporations become more involved in working with their employees to encourage prevention.

We have a chance. But only if we unite.

LIVESTRONG,
Lance