This past Tuesday, I had the privilege of participating in an incredible event at a local breast care center here in Washington, D.C to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month and emphasize the importance of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which provides access to lifesaving cancer screenings to low-income, uninsured and underinsured women. The program will administer its historic 10 millionth screening this fall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ACS CAN CEO John Seffrin and I were joined by a powerful group of cancer fighters including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz (FL-20). Also participating were Dr. Louis Weiner, director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Tanya Snyder, a breast cancer survivor, wife of Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, and a spokesperson for the National Football League's Crucial Catch campaign, which is raising awareness of breast cancer throughout the month.
Everyone spoke passionately about the fight against breast cancer, which will kill an estimated 40,000 women in America this year. But the most moving speech by far was from Stacey Ferguson, a woman at high risk for breast cancer who relies on the national breast and cervical cancer screening program to get a mammogram. Stacey, who recently lost her sister to breast cancer and whose grandmother lost her fight with the disease, doesn't have health insurance. The federal program is her lifeline to cancer screening tests that may end up saving her life. I was struck by how courageously Stacey spoke about her story and how determined she is to fight this disease. Stories like hers speak to the critical importance of this landmark program that is helping millions of women reach milestones in their fight against cancer.
Even as Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, ACS CAN will keep working year-round, across the country and with both state and federal lawmakers, to advance the public policies we know will reduce the burden of breast cancer.