courtesy of American Cancer Society

Signing the Fight Back Express

National Bus Tour Rolls Into Simi Valley Urging Americans to Join the Fight to Defeat Cancer

[Simi Valley, CA] - [August, 25, 2008] - The Fight Back Express will make its stop in Simi Valley on Thursday, September 4, at 8:00 a.m. at Simi Valley Town Center, 1555 Simi Town Center Way near center court. The Fight Back Express will be carrying the mobile message that Americans have the power to fight cancer in this country with their voices.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the sister advocacy organization of the American Cancer Society, is sponsoring the six-month bus tour to highlight the crucial role elected officials play in supporting laws and policies that help people fight cancer, including improving access to quality health care.The ACS CAN Fight Back Express kicked off in Ohio in early May and will travel across the 48 continental United States through Election Day, Nov. 4. This will be the only stop in Ventura County.

"If one person can fight cancer, then a nation can rise up and defeat it," said Carol Jackson, chair of the Board for the California Division of the American Cancer Society. "As an essential partner in the fight against cancer, government has a critical role to play in enacting laws and policies that help people battle a disease that will kill an estimated 565,650 people in America this year."

More than 47 million people in America are uninsured and countless millions more are underinsured, making them more likely to be diagnosed at later stages when cancers are more deadly. Too often, life-saving cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment programs are not available to patients who need care the most. Scientific discovery alone will not defeat cancer. The federal government is by far the largest source of cancer research funding, but years of budget freezes and cuts are impeding progress.

Through the bus tour, ACS CAN is working to make cancer a higher national priority by educating the public, lawmakers, candidates and the media about the importance of government's role in defeating cancer. Cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and their families will gather in Simi Valley, share their experience with the disease and voice the need to make dramatic changes in this country's approach to cancer.

The ACS CAN Fight Back Express is a mobile action center. At each bus stop visitors have the chance to share their story with their members of Congress through the Picture A Cure program and sign a petition to support access to quality health care for all Americans. The ACS CAN Fight Back Express bus tour comes on the heels of a major public education campaign by ACS CAN and the American Cancer Society, raising awareness about the critical need for access to quality health care for all Americans.

ACS CAN supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions for a number of cancer-related issues including:

Prevention and Early Detection: Regular screenings can catch cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages, but a federal program that offers low-income and uninsured women screenings for breast and cervical cancer only covers 1 in 5 eligible women. A similar program for colon cancer is now pending before Congress and needs to be created immediately as both of these programs have the potential to save lives.

Increased Funding for Cancer Research: Medical research could lead to the discovery of prevention and early detection tools for the most deadly cancers such as pancreatic and ovarian cancer, but federal research funding has been frozen or cut in recent years, threatening progress.

Tobacco Control: Tobacco is responsible for approximately one-third of all cancer deaths, but the federal government still lacks the ability to regulate tobacco products. At the state and local level, strong smoke-free policies could significantly reduce the number of tobacco-related cancer cases by protecting workers and patrons from the hazards of secondhand smoke.

The Fight Back Express is made possible by the contributions of millions of American Cancer Society and ACS CAN donors across the country whose lives have been touched by cancer. To find out more about the ACS CAN Fight Back Express and how to make cancer a national priority log on to www.acscan.org.###