MO Basketball Coaches, Cancer Advocates to Sport Suits & Sneakers at Capitol

Missouri Basketball Coaches, Cancer Advocates to Sport Suits and Sneakers at State Capitol to Score Big in Fight Against Cancer

Jefferson City, Mo. – February 27, 2015 – Cancer patients, survivors and advocates from throughout Missouri will join Columbia College and Lincoln University basketball coaches at the Missouri State Capitol to ask legislators to make cancer a top state priority as part of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s (ACS CAN) annual Missouri Day at the Capitol and the American Cancer Society’s Suits and Sneakers Program.

The event will bring nearly a hundred Missourians touched by cancer together to call on the Missouri legislature to support policies to improve patient quality of life through palliative care and increase funding for Show Me Healthy Women, Missouri’s free breast and cervical cancer screening program, and the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation programs.  

“Our day at the capitol is a time when advocates from around the state join together at the statehouse to let our lawmakers know they have a critical role to play in the fight against cancer,” said Mark Runyan, Missouri state lead ambassador for ACS CAN. “Making these lifesaving policies a priority will not only help improve the health of Missourians, but also eliminate death and suffering from a disease that touches us all.”

This year, nearly 35,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer in Missouri and an estimated 12,830 will lose their battle with the disease. But those who will gather at the Capitol on Wednesday will work with legislators to change that.  

WHO: Rep. John Diehl, Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives (scheduled)

John Sondag, CEO of AT&T Missouri & CEOs Against Cancer member

Bob Burchard, Columbia College head men’s basketball coach

John Moseley, Lincoln University head men’s basketball coach

Stacy Reliford, ACS CAN Missouri government relations director

Margery Tomain, ACS CAN volunteer and breast cancer survivor

Cancer survivors, patients and ACS CAN volunteers

WHAT: ACS CAN’s Missouri Day at the Capitol

WHERE: Missouri State Capitol, House Lounge

WHEN: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 12 p.m.

About ACS CAN

ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem.  ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.

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