As many know I'm battling breast cancer now with the help of many, many friends. It's scary enough when you have insurance and the resources to be able to get the treatment you need — I can't even imagine how frightening it must be to know you can't.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation is shining a much-needed light on this problem. They are already the go-to place if someone has been diagnosed and needs help finding resources. Today Lance and other survivors are going to Washington DC to advocate for treatment access for everyone:
The Gaps We Must Close
We must close the gaps between what we know and what we do in the cancer fight.
Nearly 47 million Americans lack health insurance. About 16 million more are underinsured.
Health care coverage and financial concerns should not dictate who lives, who dies and who suffers unnecessarily.
Ethnic populations in the U.S. carry a disproportionate burden of poor quality cancer care, and minorities are much more likely to die and suffer needlessly from the disease.
With screening, we could prevent 1/3 of all cancer deaths.
90% of colorectal cancer deaths, 30% of all breast cancer deaths in women over age 40 and virtually all cervical cancer deaths can be prevented now.
Cancer funding is decreasing and government attention is fragmented.
While 13 different government agencies fund cancer research, no one is in charge of the nation's cancer program. Hard to believe when 10 million people in our country are living with cancer.
We must be more efficient, more collaborative and more directed about how we use what we know.
We must close the gaps.
We must make cancer a national priority.Today.
You can get involved and get more information here.
(And yes, they are advertisers, but I hope everyone appreciates the fact that we are truly supportive of this and would be posting on it regardless. Many, many thanks to Lance and everyone associated with the Foundation for doing this important work.)
Related posts:
- Judd Gregg Shamelessly Demagogues Breast Cancer
- Stark Catches Republicans out on the Hill: Why Do They Hate America?
- Megan McArdle Thinks I Should Pay $72,000 More for Breast Cancer
- Megan McArdle Opposes National Health Care on Behalf of Breast Cancer Patients
- Help Sherrod Brown Get Bipartisan Support for Health Care Reform
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I’ll chip in.
Good health to you, Jane.
jane!!!!
Asking this administration to take the lead in this battle is tantamount to asking cancer to cure itself.
Hell yeah Lance, and keep fighting Jane!
I stumbled across this book. I have no idea if there’s anything to it.
http://www.amazon.com/World-Wi…..0912986190
Lance and Jane
Two exemplary human beings who’ve already accomplished much, and have done so with grace, charm, and style.
I love both you guys!
Many of you know that I, too, am living with cancer: my 4 year-old son, who has leukemia.
I appreciate Lance’s work and Jane’s post.
Jane!!!!!
I advocate socialized medicine.
My sister is a three plus year surviver of breast cancer. That’s just one reason I’m on Lance’s mailing list. I also visit The Breast Cancer Site each morning and click the button to help fund mammograms for poor women.
The Breast Cancer Site is a companion site with The Hunger Site, Child Health Site, Literacy Site, Rainforest Preservation Site, and Animal Rescue Site – it takes less than a minute to click through all six sites each morning.
There is something to be said for an advertiser concerned enough to have a community to advertise to…by advertising to that community.
The Komen Race for the Cure will be held here in Columbus, Ohio this weekend and I’ll be walking to support the cure.
We can send bundles of tax dollars and weapons to Middle Eastern countries and spend billions fighting the so called Iraq War. We can let Blackwater and Halliburton, and others rip us off. But we won’t provide medical care for those here in America who can’t afford it. Disgusting.
I found this discovery quite interesting:
http://www.livescience.com/hea…..drugs.html
precis: yew contains cancer fighting compounds, already known but difficult to extract. now researchers have found similar compounds in the dirt itself around the trees, potentially much easier to extract. IIRC this extract has shown great promise in tests against breast cancer…
I have been working for healthcare reform for some time. In a span of two years I had breast cancer twice, my husband had both open heart surgery and an intestinal bleed. The insurance company decided my cancer was pre-existing and only paid for about 30% of my husband’s care. (The insurance co. was based in TX-go figure) We were forced to file for bankruptcy after the first round of illnesses and,of course, had massive bills after that. We are self employed and are now just beginning to rebuild our illustration business. (But are facing the “grey wall” in finding clients-another issue)
We are becoming famous, sort of. One tv news outlet interviewed us and a second is scheduled to call. People are starting to wake up and work on this problem. Labor is really involved here in California and have directed the media folks to us.
After Iraq this is the most important problem to be solved in this country. The corporate world has sucked us all dry. We are pissed. I have news for them. The market place will not take care of this issue. A good site to visit is Itsourhealthcare.org. Did I say we are pissed?
The happy news is that we are both happy and healthy. And we are still have plenty of energy left to fight the good fight.
OT: KO: Sophia Loren to do a strip tease if her favorite soccer team wins their last few games and gets promoted back to A level.
I don’t care if she is in her 70s…
Sorry for the vestigial remnants of sexism.
{{{{{{{{{{Mary McCurnin}}}}}}}}}}
Jane!!! Awesome post!!! Why not appoint a Cancer Czar, centralize the 13 disparate programs!!! Makes a helluva lot more sense than a war Tsar!!!
dakine01 @ 17
Thanks.
OT: Patrick McHenry WPITW for claiming a DA out to get him on the voter fraud charges against his former aide.
DA in question is a Redubyacan who hosted a fund raiser for McHenry
dakine01 @ 16
I’m with ya, bra!!! I wouldn’t mind seeing the Pix!!! ;)
CTuttle @ 18
remember the west wing about a manhattan project to cure cancer. maybe not such a bad idea after all…we can afford it now…(linky)
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/P…..62007.html
(ps THIS explains why the rethugs are screaming about changes in the house rules…(linky)
http://rawstory.com/showarticl…..05-16.html
I appreciate what Lance and you and everyone else are doing for this cause.
Four weeks ago mr opie_jeanne had surgery for prostate cancer, and not the slow-moving kind. He is only 60.
The docs say they got it all, so we are pretty lucky.
Think Progress:
Former Rove ‘gatekeeper’ seeking immunity
CTuttle @ 21
She’s on the list of Women I’m still madly in love with after thirty or forty years…
I got the shots that will help me to not get cancer in my cervix when I am older. I get all my healthcare from the army, and we have an article on our blog about healthcare for women in the military.
{{{{{{Jane}}}}}}
Thank you.
Yes, it has touched our family.
Thank you more than you can ever know.
Get well… Stay well…
Wishing you the very best ;->
SnarKassandra @ 26
is your blog in danger from the idiotic new policy by the DD on milblogs?
Alfred Kelgarries @ 28
huh????
SnarKassandra @ 26
SnarKassandra: Good for you and Good for your brother and Aunt BEtsy for “allowing” you to do so. And good for the Army in providing the vaccination.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 22
““We will bring down the House,” the aide said.”
This is what the blog is about. It is not a military blog. Just a teen political blog.
As the 2008 elections are approaching, and with it the end of the Bush era, a new era will began. A new era — complete with voices of reason and change. The youth vote and youth involvement in all areas of the political process will be a big part of that change.
YOUTHinkLeft.com (YOUTH THINK LEFT) deals with political issues and information written in a blog article format, and through original videos delivered in an online newsmagazine style blog and rss feeds.
We write about politics, and all articles are written by pre-teens, teens or young adults. Our youngest blogger is 12 and our oldest is a college graduate. Two are in middle school and most are in high school. Geographically, we extend from North Carolina to New Mexico and from Texas to Wisconsin. We’re always looking for new bloggers. We are progressives, liberals, dems and greens.
We have big plans, so please comment on our articles and begin a discussion about the future!
SnarKassandra @ 26
Good for you!!
And George Bush, for political reasons, is against stem-cell research.
SnarKassandra @ 29
http://www.milblogging.com/ind…..513-181938
Oklahoma kiddo @ 34
That is the stupidest opinion ever from somebody that starts wars and executes people and lets babies die if they don’t have health insurance or money.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 28
She’s not residing on a military server which is the supposed excuse. I think it’s mainly only in Iraq although may be other DoD installations but supposedly the excuse is the bandwidth used by YouTube, MySpace, et al is why they’ve been “banned.”
SnarKassandra @ 32
are you active duty? the policy may still affect you..sent a link upstream…
Dear Jane – I have just made a contribution in honor of you, and another one in memory of my dear 50-yr-old cousin who died a year ago after fighting this blasted curse for five years. Amazing people, all of you – who fight and lead us all in learning how to live. As my cousin, Carol, wrote for her funeral card accompanied by her picture with her usual brilliant smile that she had until the end – “it isn’t how many years in the life, it is how much life in the years!” She has been my guiding light these past few years in how to live – and you, my dear Jane, are shining the way for me now when I need it – and our country needs it.
Thanks – and Love!
Kathie
Elliott @ 31
Watch out
You might get what youre after
Cool babies
Strange but not a stranger
Im an ordinary guy
Burning down the house
Lew Koch upstairs with Jose Padilla update.
SnarKassandra @ 26
Glad to hear it. And good evening.
A couple OTs:
Former EPA Chief Refuses To Testify At 9/11 Hearing
House passes flag bill Bush opposed
Alfred Kelgarries @ 38
Ha! No. I am 15. My brother is active duty. But we don’t live on base.
FYI, new thread
punaise @ 40
DKos has background:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..174834/063
Dakine and Cassie, the DoD policy only concerns troops deployed abroad, and, assigned Military computers! Another words, whomever relies upon Military portals and/or ISP’s!!!
CTuttle @ 47
that’s useful to know, thanks!
punaise @ 40
oo I never knew what the heck he was sayin’!
all hail Sidney Blumenthal:
CTuttle @ 47
that’s what I thought…
Jane.
Jane, thanks for this post – and for your willingness to help others at some real cost to your privacy.
Everything you advocate needs to happen yesterday.
Yet the biggest gap to fill is “upstream”.
We need to plug up a spilled jar of poison – and clean up the mess.
Two-thirds of all our cancer (at least) are from the environment.
Yes – melanoma’s mostly sun-related. Lung cancers are primarily tobacco related.
Chemicals apparently cause the rest.
One out three people in our 300 million plus nation will get cancer.
More than a hundred million aunts, grandads, sisters….
More than seventy million of these mothers, fathers, grandmas, brothers..
Will get cancer from the “environment”.
The vast majority of these seventy million will get cancer because of manmade chemicals that didn’t exist fifty years ago.
Upstream from our cancer epidemic…
Big Chemical/Big Energy poison our breast milk.
And everything else.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 13
Shiteous. Totally.
Hugs to Mary McCurnin.
opie_jeanne @ 23
Best wishes to you and the mister.
Jane;
as I’ve already offered, anything you need, I’m your girl.
Washcloth on the forehead,and on the nape of the neck. Enzyme-rich food in your stomach, thoughts to keep you moving forward. You have all you need in you to do it. Friends to remind you which way to go. Healthy, alive. That’s all you need.
Food is fuel.
Keep on top of it. Love yourself in a way you didn’t before. Let people help you in a way you didn’t before. Put yourself first in a way you didn’t before so that you can continue to put out your passions in a way that help us. Take care of yourself first, girl, load up on those enzymes………feed that incredible brain of yours.
love to you from ohio.
jane-
and i forgot to add that i wish i could take it all away.
M @ 12
Me, too! Right here in Columbus, with my mum.
tommy yum @ 7
Jane I light a candle for your health everyday along with candles for other friends and community members struggling with health issues. (I had the pleasure of meeting you at the Libby trial)
Thank you Jane for bringing up this important topic! I hope you do it again when more people can respond. I have watched friends who have had cancer who did not have health insurance and had to watch and help them navigate the health care provided for the uninsured.
Our health care system can be a total nightmare for those without health insurance. This needs to change. Thank you Neil Armstrong!
Kathleen @ 61
Aunt Betsy needs prayers and good thoughts and candles too, if you are willing.
Hugs and prayers for Jane, tommy yum and family, opie_jeanne and family, Aunt Betsy, and to you all.
I have a child that is a cancer survivor and I have seen first hand what families of children go through when a child is diagnosed and treated for cancer. The worst scenario is a family that is uninsured or under insured. They can be wiped out in short order. Not just the parents, but the other siblings suffer immeasurably. Often, a parent must quit a job to care for the child adding further financial strain. This country needs universal health care. It may not be perfect, but it is so far superior to what we have now. The majority of bankruptcies in America are health related. Most Americans are one catastrophic illness away from disaster. They’re just in denial. My family is insured, but the experience with our child, made us aware of the limitations of insurance. If we took on health care as right in this nation and included everyone, there would also be more support for health care needs, research and quality treatment. There needs to be a collective effort. Private insurance will never be as good as if we all join together.
Dear Jane,
It was devastating to me to hear of your battle with breast cancer. Seeing your picture on line and admiring your beauty, I can empathize with your plight. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 50 years old. She underwent treatment and is now 78. Not a bad survival rate. I can also empathize with Lance Armstrong, as my step-brother was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 32. He underwent treatment and is now 45. Not a bad survival rate.
I am 54 years old and a 4 year survivor of lung cancer. I’m just a nobody though. However, lung cancer kills more people than all cancers combined. The average five year survival rate for lung cancer is 15%. The average 5 year survival rate for breast cancer is over 80%. The average 5 year survival rate for testicular cancer is over 90%. The side effects of breast cancer “cure” are the psychological effects of not being a “whole” person. The side effects of testicular cancer “cure” is the psychological effect of not being a “whole” person, and perhaps not being able to produce as much sperm as before. The side effects of lung cancer is a decrease of lung capacity and an inability to breathe as before. There are psychological effects, but you probably wouldn’t be interested in my thoughts of suicide. I know my psychologist wasn’t.
I have seen the effects of lung cancer. My natural father contracted lung cancer at 50 years of age, as I did, and died at the age of 53. My beloved step-father was diagnosed of lung cancer at the age of 67. He never left the hospital alive after his operation. Perhaps you can imagine my thoughts when I was informed I “might” have lung cancer two months after I was divorced after 26 years of marriage.
Yes, I know, you’re probably asking yourself if I smoked. Well, unfortunately, yes I did. I also live in Polk county Florida, the phosphate capital of the world, and probably the highest area in the radiation of radon gas. Yes, I also worked 15 years directly in the phosphate industry in which we were finally monitored for radiation poisoning during the last two years of my employment.
What gave me lung cancer? I don’t know. What gave you and my mother breast cancer? We don’t know. Was it foreplay? Was it breast feeding?
What gave my step-brother John and Lance Armstrong testicular cancer? Was it an over active sex life? Was it riding on those stupid uncomfortable bicycle seats? Who cares? All we realize is we are all one of the unfortunate ones.
In your blog you mention the fears of being uninsured. My treatment and “cure”, during which time I was insured, cost almost $250,000. My treatment was probably the most minuscule possible. I only went through the diagnosis procedure which encompassed almost a year, and the eventual lobectomy (removal of part of my right lung).
After my operation and extreme optimism for my future after dedicating my new life to God, imagine my surprise when I returned to work and was told my performance was observed to have been poor during the last two months before I left for my operation.
I guess the concern for my future and my occasionally missing work for CT scans, X-rays, PET scans, Pneumonology testing, and the eventual biopsy were too much a hardship upon my department, and I guess I just wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was when I was only previously awarded “Quality Employee of the Month” in August 2001.
Imagine my fear when I was forced to work away from my normal duties, seven miles from my home, in an unfamiliar location 45 miles away, so my supervisor could personally observe my performance, which he “told” me upon my return.
Imagine my surprise when my performance was constantly criticized and documented as poor. Imagine my surprise when I was placed on probation for reporting my supervisor for discriminatory behavior to our department manager.
Imagine my surprise when I was fired three months after returning to work after my return from my operation.
Imagine my FEAR when my first post operation CT scan showed another spot on my right lung. Imagine my FEAR when I had to pay $500 a month for COBRA to maintain insurance coverage so my cancer would not be considered a “pre-existing” condition and not insurable after I was fired.
Imagine my FEAR when I filed an EEOC charge of ADA discrimination and was soon retaliated against by Cargill denying me unemployment benefits.
Imagine my FEAR after not even getting an interview for a job for nine months with me being an MCSE with 10 years IT experience.
Imagine my FEAR when I stopped by the American Cancer Society to see if they had any support programs for me and told all they did was give out bras and wigs.
Imagine my FEAR when I attended my second American Cancer Society Relay for Life and was escorted off the property by the police because my ex-employer was there and one of their largest contributers.
Imagine my FEAR when I was invited the next year, and again escorted off the property by the police for “fear” of what I might do.
Imagine my FEAR when I was again invited to attend and was served with a restraining order and civil suite for inquiring if I could really attend. Yeah, maybe I didn’t say it in the “proper” way, but I was not treated in the “proper” way by the Lakeland American Cancer Society either.
Anyway, I’m over it. I now have a wonderful job making $10,000 a year less than I was making 5 years ago. But hey, I’m insured, and if I make it another 6 months, I’ll have beaten the 15% odds and will no longer have a pre-existing condition.
I’ll be able to give blood again to help those less fortunate than me.
I’ll maybe even be able to live, and perhaps love again.
God Bless, Peace, and most of all Love,
Perry Jordan
I know this is a waste and won’t be posted. It never has been and never will be. No one ever wants to hear the hard side of cancer. It still gets me when Judge Richard Lazerra compared my lung cancer to carpel tunnel syndrome. My country. Ain’t it great? Liberty and freedom for all (who are rich). Sigh…
Just want to congratulate you on all your accomplishments and thank you for the enjoyment I get from your site. It is quite uplifting and I can feel the energy here.
You are certainly a brave and productive person.
hey i’ve had breast cancer twice (once 11 years ago, and then a second time 2 years ago – so now, with two mastectomis, i once again have a matched set.) if my wonderful employers had not been so generous we would have needed to file for bankrupcy too. As it is, it will be a number of years before we’ll have savings or own a house. Even with decent insurance we had a lot of co-pays and expenses not covered. how DO people without insurance even stand a chance? I’m in. I’ll be donating next.
good luck jane.
All of us CA Firedoggies can support SB 840 (Keuhl) – a comprehensive single-payer system that gets rid of the insurance industry. Out of staters should take a look at the Bill (which Der Gropen Feurher vetoed last year)and then contact their respective legislators and DEMAND the right to basic health care.
For all of you struggling with cancer and other serious illnesses (or assisting with care) best wishes as you fight like hell!