On September 20, American Cancer Society from all fifty states will go to Washington, D.C. for the 2006 Celebration on the Hill.

The ambassadors will come together as one voice to urge congressional leaders to support the fight against cancer by supporting three initiatives. They will ask that members of Congress increase research funding to the National Cancer Institute by 5% per year.

In addition, they will ask for reauthorization and extension of 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 treatment. Unfortunately there is only enough federal funding currently to screen one in five eligible women.

In preparation for the Celebration on the Hill event, during the month of August, the ACS Cancer Action Network Ambassadors met with their local representatives to prepare them for their visit. They asked each representative and senator to sign the Congressional Cancer Promise. In short the promise says that they will:
• Make health system reform a priority.
• Elevate prevention, early detection and survivorship.
• Increase their commitment to research.
• Expand access to care.

Representative David Scott (13th district) was the first delegate from Georgia to sign the promise. Ambassadors Michelle Mirzaiee and Sophia Hunt met with Representative Scott and informed him about the Celebration on the Hill. They asked him to sign the promise, their Wall of Hope banner, and asked him to come to the celebration.

Ambassadors Ilene Cohen, Andrea Clay and Jackie Dillard met with Senator Saxby Chambliss. They shared with him how they were connected to cancer and he told them about his own experience with prostate cancer. He signed the Wall of Hope banner and said he looked forward to seeing the ambassadors at the celebration.

The Wall of Hope will contain the signatures of millions of Americans and will be compiled into the Wall of Hope monument on the National Mall. The Society’s Wall of Hope monument, made up of 5,000 individual banners representing as many local communities, with an estimated three million signatures, will urge Congress to make cancer a national priority.

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