Patients and Families Take Cancer Fight to the Roundhouse

Patients and Families Take Cancer Fight to New Mexico Capitol

Many Ride the Rails on a Campaign Express 

SANTA FE, N.M. – February 9, 2015 – Cancer survivors, caregivers and healthcare professionals from across the state, many of them “riding the rails” to get to the New Mexico Capitol today, had a simple request to lawmakers:  Make the cancer fight a top policy priority!

Nearly 100 volunteer advocates attended the day-long activities that started with a visit to Governor Susanna Martinez’s office. 

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) gives people touched by cancer a way to make a difference by teaching them how to make their voices heard.  Once a year, as the legislative session gets underway, volunteer advocates head to the Cancer Awareness Day at the Capitol and many of them pack a car on the New Mexico Rail Runner as they rally together in preparation for the day’s activities.

Media were invited to ride along this year to observe the campaign as it took to the rails for the hour-and-a-half hour ride to Santa Fe. On board were several youth groups and two boys in particular who had a lot to say to lawmakers about the importance of stopping cancer in its tracks.  Octavio Lopez, a young brain cancer survivor, and Garret Martinez, who lost his father to cancer, both courageously took their stories to the Capitol in an attempt to raise awareness and gain support on key issues.

“I’m taking part in ACS CAN’s Cancer Awareness Day because I don’t want other people to go through what I went through,” said Lopez.  “We need to make sure lawmakers at the Capitol know that cancer is an important issue and that we need enough money to prevent and treat this terrible disease.”

Youth advocates presented a call to action during the event by discussing the prevalence of dangerous tobacco use among their peers.  Several youth groups, from as far as Las Cruces and Alamogordo, were mentored by ACS CAN staff and volunteer advocates on how government works and the ways that people of all ages can get involved to help shape policy for the benefit of New Mexicans.  The event was so popular, there was a waiting list to get in after the capacity of the training room was reached.

“We continue to be recharged by the excitement and engagement of our volunteers and the new cancer patients and families who join us every year,” said Sandra Adondakis, director of government relations for ACS CAN.  “The response from members of the legislature is positive and the visits from cancer patients and other volunteers can directly impact their thinking on important pending legislation.  This is a way for them to learn directly from the New Mexicans impacted by cancer and to hear their stories up close.”

This legislative session, the ACS CAN volunteer advocates are requesting the following from lawmakers:

• Protecting kids from e-cigarettes. The young ACS CAN advocates joined other volunteers to ask for legislators to protect children over big tobacco interests by supporting Senate Bill 360.  It is important that e-cigarettes be included within the definition of tobacco products because they are being used like traditional cigarettes and most contain nicotine derived from tobacco.  A federal court has ruled that e-cigarettes should be regulated as “tobacco products.”
• Tobacco use prevention and cessation funding.  Volunteers want lawmakers to support the proposed Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) and Executive (or Governor’s) budget of $5,682,000 for evidence-based, statewide tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
• Breast and cervical cancer screening funding.  Advocates will ask for support regarding the $131,800 proposed budget by the Governor and LFC for screening programs.  Evidence shows that individuals lacking health insurance are less likely to get recommended cancer screenings and more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at later stages when it is more costly to treat and harder to survive.

More than 9,970 new cancer cases are expected in New Mexico this year and an estimated 3,620 people will die from the disease. To find out more about ACS CAN’s cancer-related policy priorities in New Mexico, please visit this section on its website:  http://fightcancer.org/nm

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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