Lawai cancer survivor Uri Martos joined nearly 700 cancer patients, survivors and volunteers from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for the annual American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Leadership Summit and Lobby Day.
Advocates urged Congress to make cancer a national priority and help end a disease that still kills nearly 1,700 Americans every day.
Martos met with Hawaii’s members of Congress, including staff from Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s office, to ask for support in three key areas in the cancer fight, including increasing federal cancer research funding. She also asked lawmakers to advance legislation to improve patients’ quality of life and to support legislation that would increase access to colonoscopy screenings in Medicare.
Martos is making her second trip to Washington, D.C., as ACS CAN’s lead volunteer advocate for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district. Twenty years ago, Martos’ mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, in 2014, Uri herself was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36.
“Too many Americans are suffering and dying from cancer every day. I’m honored to travel to Washington, D.C., to let Congress know that families throughout Kauai and the state of Hawaii are counting on them to lead the fight against this terrible disease,” said Martos. “As a cancer survivor myself and an advocate for others, I want Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Senators Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono to know that Hawaii’s volunteers need them to commit to make cancer a national priority.”
Specifically, Martos and her fellow Hawaii volunteers asked their Members of Congress to:
• Increase funding for research at the National Institutes of Health by $2 billion for fiscal year 2019. There has been tremendous support for cancer research funding. Last year, Congress approved a $3 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health. The Senate recently approved a $2 billion increase for federal research funding and advocates urged the House to follow them as they finalize their budget this month.
• Support the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act to greatly improve quality of life for cancer patients. Palliative care provides patients and caregivers an extra layer of support to cope with pain, stress and other symptoms, as well as side effects of treatment. It works alongside curative treatment. PCHETA passed the House unanimously and is awaiting action in the Senate, where the bill has 33 cosponsors.
• Support the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act. Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States. It’s one of the most preventable cancers through routine screening, but cost remains a big barrier. ACS CAN supports bipartisan legislation that would fix a loophole in Medicare and eliminate surprise costs for seniors getting colonoscopy screenings.
Before meeting with their legislators, cancer advocates attended training sessions on communicating with elected officials, conducting grassroots activities in their communities and engaging the media.
The ACS CAN Lobby Day culminates tonight with a Lights of Hope ceremony in front of the Lincoln Memorial featuring 33,000 lit bags from every state to honor a cancer survivor or memorialize a loved one lost to the disease.
Congratulations to those cancer survivors. Though in this era we know there are false positive diagnoses, followed sometimes by Fake Cures, which keeps the Medical $ coming in.
Congratulations to CEO Mr. Seffrin of the American Cancer Society on his annual compensation a year or so ago of over $900,000.00.
Many top executives at the American Cancer Society earn over $200,000.00 per year.
Cancer doctors in 2011, 7 years ago, were earning $350,000.00 per year.
Yes cancer is expensive…!
The cancer “Cheerleaders” keep pushing the old adage of “Fight Fight Fight” to find a cure for cancer. A highly emotional word, Fight, but it has nothing to do with FINDING a cancer cure or treatment. Really, those scientists in those laboratories are only fighting for higher wages, and while they may argue over the illusions of a cure, they never Fight.
So let’s get over that silly notion…FIGHT. Let’s be scientific., and historical. In at least 75 years of cancer research there hasn’t been a confirmed universal cure for an form of cancer, but just keep donating to the American Cancer Society (ACS) , and don’t forget the American Heart Association, their people need $ too.
And while some people are grateful for the care and results they got, it does nor compare with the over 6.5 million deaths in a single decade, and that is just the people in the USA, not world wide.
While the ACS is asking for another few Billion $, on the heels of getting $3 Billion lately (see article above), they are only searching for a cure by treatment, while the smarter $ is on the discovery Causes and Prevention of Cancer, which Causes daily, and literally, stares us in the face…it’s the chemicals in the food and the food incompatible with heath.
The 30 year head of research, T. Colin Campbell, PhD, for the NIH, the National institute of Health (Not interested in Health), when he and his team, our team really, and scientists from India and Scandinavia discovered one significant cause of cancer, and Dr. Campbell presented the evidence to his superiors at the NIH, because they were looking for a cure and not the CAUSE, they fired Dr. Campbell.
You see our NIH scientists discovered that the protein, Casein, in dairy products like milk and cheese, causes cancer. And milk is a suspect of childhood cancer, since who drinks the most milk. Kid’s do…! But to the NIH what was more important a Dairy Industry, or children’ and adults’ health. Reminds of the wanting Dairy at Mahaulepu.
Cancers are a Chroinic (long term) degenerative Disease, Cancer begins with one cell, or simultaneous starts of different cells in more than one location.
Most cancers require Decades of cellular growth before they are large enough to be detectable or diagnosable. Some cancers can take only a few years to be diagnosed, we know this because children have diagnosable cancers, while some children have cancers that will take 2, 3, and more decades to be diagnosable when they are adults.
Over 6.5 million people die from cancer every 10 years, proof that diagnosis and treatment are not working.
The $Billions of dollars spent on Research is almost entirely spent on drug treatments to find which chemicals can suppress the findings of cancer, or surgically remove cancers, none of which removes or prevents the Cause; and even during treatment ongoing cancer Causes are negatively and silently impacting the patient who has the cancer. Most of the chemicals, petrochemicals, absurdly used in cancer treatment are carcinogenic, or cancer causing themselves. Yet very little if any $ money is spent on finding the CAUSES of Cancer, PREVENTION of Cancer, or avoiding the Causes of Cancer; much less the other diseases on the list of human killers.
Medical science considers if you survive cancer 5 years after treatment you are considered cured of cancer, but that is a rather thin timeline for science to announce success. Kauai’s survivor representative’s mother was diagnosed with cancer 20years prior though we do not know the mother’s disease outcome. With more and more pointing to the chemicals in and on our food as a cause of cancer and many other diseases, as well as the chemicals in our environment , or sprayed on our foods, air, water, and land, this mother and daughter ate at the same table, same foods…and same chemicals? Surely so.
Let us hope that our representatives in Washington, D.C., ask for Research to be done in the study of the Causes of Cancer, and the Removal of the Causes and Prevention of the Exposure to the Causes of Cancer. It is known already that too many foods, and even tooth paste additives, and agricultural chemicals are toxic cancer causing chemicals for humans. Just recently Hawaii banned Ag chemical Chlorpyrifos. Good Job…! ! ! Sadly these chemicals got into the food and environment before we the people were made aware of them; while other countries had banned them for years. We are behind the times and our Disease Statistics clearly show this enormous error on America’s part. While America polices much of the world, we’ve ignored what is attacking our own citizens’ health and longevity and lives.
It Is Time for a Change. Really it is Time to Demand a change because we as humans Deserve our Health to be at our optimal potential.
America bestows upon every one of us the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. But what is sorely lacking is the Right to ones Health, which has been seriously denied by the PetroChemical and Pharmaceutical Industry’s profits.
The support for Colonoscopy Screening, mentioned in the article, as well as screening for any Disease is not in any way an effort of Health Care, but is a Disease Care gimmick, a gimmick driven by the $4 Trillion Dollars a year Pharmaceutical Chemical and Medical Industries, and their political lobbyists, trying to sell more tests and treatments that do not in any way prevent or remove the cause of these Diseases, but instead bait the public into waiting to enter their wealthy Disease Care system, a system that requires you to only wait for the inevitable diseases caused by the chemicals that they already know all too well that will make you sick, until you dutifully, like a robot, report for Disease Care Diagnosis and Treatment. You’ve just swallowed the hook, line, and sinker…! ! !
“We’ve been waiting for you…!”. Is the voice of Medical Disease Care, all the while having the ability, but ignoring it, to reverse this old worn out, humanely bankrupt, Disease Care System. We as a race of humans put here by God, deserve better. And those dissatisfied with this Earthly Paradise and this they need more chemicals, let them move to the barren red dirt of Mars, and please take your chemicals with you.
Supporting the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act to greatly improve quality of life for cancer patients is another OxyMoron. These measures are after the fact, too late toy already have the disease for this type of benefit, this is time and money spent after you already have the disease. And it is a lack of human concern for those with disease in the light of the alternative of Finding Causes and making Prevention work as to Disease.
Replace Disease Care with HEALTH CARE is the sane thing to do.
And we have not yet even discussed effective natural methods that prevent and eliminate disease.
Ms. Martos states she and many others want our elected leaders to commit to making Cancer a National Priority. Ms. Martos, please understand that Cancer is already a National Priority, too many people have it, and everyone else fears it like a Killer in the Night…the Causes and Preventions of any Disease have been lost in government bureaucracy and corporate profits. If you represent us, Ms. Martos, please, you must demand Research on the CAUSES and PREVENTIONS of all Diseases, most Diseases have the same Causes. That is, finding the Cause of one Disease, will be finding the Cause of other Disease.
You prevent nothing by waiting around to treat it, however, it does earn medical care $Trillions of dollars while you are waiting around on the same old cliche:
Early Testing = Prevention: But that is an OXYMORON, no wait, it is DUMBER than that. You have not Prevented what you already have.
Mahalo,
Charles
Aloha Kakou,
As to a comparison of Cancer deaths vs. doctor caused deaths (called Iatrogenic disease) in America each year, the data on malpractice deaths taken from an eight-year study from Johns Hopkins University, found that there are at least 250,000 deaths due to malpractice in America each year. CNBC reported other studies have found such deaths surpass 400,000 per year.
If we take just the lower figure, it would mean the same as 500 passenger planes with 500 people on board crashing each year with 100% of the people dying.
If that catastrophe ever happened in 1 year in America, the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, would stop all flights until the Cause was found.
Yet doctor caused death is allowed to run lethal, rampant, and dangerous.
One of the causes of the yearly cancer disaster (620,000 people die each year) is allowing the public health of our citizens to degenerate out of control, with disease care given only after you have the diseases.
All the while, the Not providing of Health Care, which is the Prevention of Disease and the removal of and avoiding the Cause of Disease, cancer, etc., is ignored by those in charge of our health and well paid for it apparently.
Something must be done PROACTIVELY to protect the Public’s Health, and rely less on REACTIVE Disease Care.
Mahalo,
Charles