I would like to take this opportunity to tell you and your readers about Celebration on the Hill. This is a grassroots effort of the American Cancer Society, a unique event that will show our country’s lawmakers how the American Cancer Society is waging the fight against cancer in communities nationwide.

In September American Cancer Society Legislative Ambassadors from all 50 states will go to Washington, D.C., for the 2006 Celebration on the Hill. The National Cancer Institute has set forth a challenge to the nation to “eliminate suffering and death due to cancer by the year 2015.”

Celebration on the Hill will give us the opportunity to make this goal, and our support of it, visible to members of Congress. We will all come together as one voice to urge our congressional leaders to support the first round of initiatives that will help us reach this goal by 2015.

One important focus area of Celebration on the Hill 2006 is funding for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). This vital program helps low-income, uninsured and underinsured women gain access to life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings and tests. Unfortunately there is only enough federal funding to screen only one in five eligible women.

Every Relay for Life in the nation will have a banner that will be signed by cancer survivors and supporters alike. All banners will go to Washington with us and will be joined together to create our nation’s newest monument, The Wall of Hope.

There are over 600 relays in Georgia alone. Let our congressional leaders know we want cancer to be a national priority by signing our Wall of Hope. Can you imagine the size The Wall of Hope will be when all 50 states join their banners together?

Jackie Dillard
Fairburn, Ga.

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