Julie Turner of Springfield Receives Top Volunteer Award

Julie Turner of Springfield Receives Top Volunteer Award for Excellence in Cancer-Fighting Advocacy Work

Ohio Cancer Advocate Receives National Recognition from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

WASHINGTON D.C. – September 19, 2014 – Julie Turner was awarded the Volunteer Award for Excellence in Advocacy by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) for her tireless volunteer efforts to help make cancer a national priority.

Each year, a lead volunteer who has demonstrated solid, consistent leadership advocating for ACS CAN’s area of cancer-related public policy receives this award.

“Julie has been a tireless volunteer and dedicated cancer advocate of ACS CAN’s legislative priorities,” said Christopher W. Hansen, president of ACS CAN. “Because of volunteers like Julie – a survivor herself – we are making progress towards strong and effective cancer-fighting public policy in Ohio and nationally.”

ACS CAN is the largest national cancer advocacy organization and supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. Turner is a lead volunteer for ACS CAN in Ohio and manages grassroots activities in the community and attends meetings with local lawmakers on ACS CAN’s priority legislative issues.

Like many ACS CAN volunteers, Turner’s connection to cancer is deeply personal – as a high school senior in 1974, she was diagnosed with stage III Hodgkin's disease, and in 2007 she lost her personal caregiver, her mother, to cancer.

As a survivor-advocate, Turner has also been a volunteer through the Ohio Division of the American Cancer Society since 1996. She began her work as a Relay for Life volunteer, later leading the 2011 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Springfield and spending eight years serving on the Clark County ACS board. Turner has been a member of ACS CAN since 2005, and has lobbied in Columbus and Washington DC every year since.

“Traveling to Washington and speaking with my elected officials enriches me with the knowledge that I am making a difference in the war against cancer,” said Turner. “For every day that we don't take action against this disease, another diagnosed person will suffer. As one of the 14 million cancer survivors in this country I must give back for those who raised funds to develop my life-saving treatments some 40 years ago. Most significantly, volunteering with the American Cancer Society affords me the opportunity to honor my mother, my caregiver who lost a courageous battle with cancer in 2007.”  

On behalf of all families touched by cancer, ACS CAN applauds Turner’s passion and willpower to advocate for meaningful legislation that helps eliminate the burden of cancer and end suffering and death from this disease. 

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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