HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE CONTACTED YOUR SENATORS RE: LUNG CANCER FUNDING

hermanade
5 Recommendations

I think that everyone touched by lung cancer, directly or indirectly, has an obligation to contact their senators regarding the lung cancer funding issue that is pending. Somehow, that seems as important and attention-worthy as other discussions, of late, on the LCA website.

Breast cancer, for example, has an 85% survival rate, and it's all about funding (and the advocacy that effects such funding).

I don't know how to re-include the link, but Amy posted the link on one of her postings, and the link is also available via Lung Cancer Alliance--Advocacy.

26 replies

Isabelle
  • By Isabelle
  • Posted July 18, 2008 at 5:03 pm

Hermanade:
Thank you for re-posting re: this issue. I've contacted all my representatives to encourage them to support the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2008. And I've made several postings on this site as a reminder to all of us to push-push-push! If WE don't act on this issue -- if WE don't e-mail every friend we have and ask them to do the same -- if WE don't jump on this opportunity -- then we have no right to complain about the fact that lung cancer gets so little funding and attention. This is our opportunity to be heard and to MAKE IT HAPPEN when it comes to getting the ball rolling for more lung cancer research!

The link is:

http://capwiz.com/lungcanceralliance/home/

hermanade
  • By hermanade
  • Posted July 18, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Thank you, Isabelle, for reposting the link (I've no clue how to do such a thing).

Hope this motivates people, and, yes, no one has the right to complain about lung ca's under-funding if they don't advocate for funding. And, really, the form almost submits itself (and I'm a techno-phobe, no less).

:-)

Jhoey
  • By Jhoey
  • Posted July 18, 2008 at 8:31 pm

I'm only going to dido what has been said, Its so easy to follow that link & contact each & everyones senators & when you get a reply it does make you feel like you are accomplishing something. Do it for yourself do it for Old Salty do it for us all. Do it for all the future victims of LC.
Janet H

J-me
  • By J-me
  • Posted July 18, 2008 at 11:49 pm

I contacted mine and sent e-mails to many friends to do the same!!!

What a statement we would make if everyone joined in!!!!

God Bless!!
J-me

Bighair
  • By Bighair
  • Posted July 19, 2008 at 12:02 am

Hi Hermanade,

I've contacted my US senators in Maryland and got a reply back. It felt good! I'm sending a reminder to my older sister, linnyh, about contacting her US senators in Texas.

Sincerely,
Cheryl

candifleming

Hi Hermanade,
I've contacted my US Senator in Oklahoma and even got a response back from Sen. Inhofe. I didn't get a clear quote on exacty what he will do, more pity I think than anything. But we will see..Thanks everyone for posting.
Candi

caden
  • By caden
  • Posted July 19, 2008 at 8:52 am

I contacted mine in Pennsylvania through the link here~it was very easy and didn't take long. I got the standard email reply.
Cathy

drawing3d
  • By drawing3d
  • Posted July 19, 2008 at 8:53 am

Yep, me too...and the reply I got back was how much he advocates for BREAST cancer and PROSTRATE cancer...he missed the whole point...or chose to ignore it...

PETER44
  • By PETER44
  • Posted July 19, 2008 at 10:46 am

Yes I did and got a reply from them.
Pete44

Lilyjackie

I have contacted my representatives and have sent information to my friends.

We need a standard bearer to represent us. We also need to get out the message that more people die of lung cancer than breast cancer.

How do we get this going?
Jackie

ValS
  • By ValS
  • Posted July 19, 2008 at 4:02 pm

I, too, contacted my senators (CA), mentioning the disparity in funds for LC considering its lethality. Wouldn't it be great if breast cancer fund raising expanded its scope to include LC since so many female, nonsmokers (like myself) are or will be struck by this terrible disease? They have really done it right: appealed to the feminist movement, gotten famous people to participate, and collected huge sums of money and political support. We are always up against the "Did you smoke?" stigma and I don't know how to overcome it.

Valerie

simplyklb
  • By simplyklb
  • Posted July 19, 2008 at 4:19 pm

I have and sent an email to a few family members and friends.

Kristi

cad1223
  • By cad1223
  • Posted July 20, 2008 at 7:15 am

Thank you all for the information. I just sent the note to two senators in my state, Connecticut. Hopefully we can get the point across, together!

Cheryl

stephanie410

One of the things I am doing is sending an email to every senator. It really doesn't take that long (perhaps a few hours). If you go to this website (http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm), you can get a complete list of the links to contact every senator. Just do AutoFill on your computer so that the forms are easy and cut and paste the text into each comment section.

The form to contact our own senators through the Lung Cancer Alliance is awesome and user friendly--a perfect link to use for our own senators and to pass along to our friends and family. But those of us with profiles in this community are presumably impacted a bit more deeply--I think we need to do more and go beyond. Our lives depend on it...

--Stephanie

kcofrancesco

Hello All,

Thank you so much for taking the time to contact your Senators on this important legislation. We need to get as many people engaged in this effort as possible.

While it is important to reach out to the Senators from all 50 states, correspondence to these offices is most impactful when it comes from the constituents. Elected officials are charged with representing the interests of the citizens in their districts and that is who needs to be making the initial contact.

Also, when you get a response from your Senators that isn't specific to lung cancer or refers to increasing the NIH and NCI budgets generally here is some information that you can include in your response back.

LCA is in full support of an increase to NIH and NCI budgets, but we need to have the directive to make sure that those extra monies go to lung cancer research. It is 30% of all cancer deaths and should be funded in a manner commensurate to its public health impact!

The National Institutes of Health have 13 institutions of which NCI is one. It is its own separate entity with one line item for funding. In other words, no funding can be specifically earmarked within NCI.

That being said, there are other institutions within NIH that can have funding earmarked. Of those institutions, there are only a few with a nexus that would allow for cancer (lung cancer) research. This legislation targets those institutions and the specific programs within.

If any of you have any questions on this matter, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Your efforts are much appreciated and will positively impact the lung cancer community for years to come!

Kay

Kay Cofrancesco
Director of External Relations
LCA
kay@lungcanceralliance.org
202-463-2080

stephanie410

Since this bill is in committee and the majority of bills never make it out of committee, my Senators may never vote on it anyway. What can we do to get it through the committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions)?

Does LCA have a read on where any of these committee members may stand?

Thanks!

--Stephanie

Angie-in-SC

Stephanie and Kay,
Thank you for being so informative. I wish we had an adocacy forum on the site.
I just sent my letters. I promise to do what I can. Keep the ideas coming.

Angie-in-SC

For example,
I just got the following reply from the office of one of my two state senators, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint:

Dear Mrs. Derrick,

Thank you for writing me to express your support for S. 3187, the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2008. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you may know, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska introduced S. 3187 on June 25, 2008. This bill would establish a comprehensive interagency response to reduce lung cancer mortality in a timely manner.

At this time, S. 3187 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. While I am not a member of this Committee, you can rest assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind should this legislation come to the Senate floor for a vote.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with me. Please feel free to contact me again about anything important to you or your family. It is an honor to serve you and the people of South Carolina.

Sincerely,

Jim DeMint
United States Senator

amymaura
  • By amymaura
  • Posted July 23, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Because I live in DC and don't have a senator, I have been focusing on getting friends who DO have senators to email theirs. In my email to them, I told them that if they email me back and let me know that they sent an email, I would buy them a drink or chocolate next time i see them. :-) It's a way that I can encourage them to let me know if they did it and so far 5 people have emailed me saying that they emailed their senators!

(Although one friend in Oregon wants her chocolates hand-delivered, so that may be the most expensive vote-motivator out there! ;-) )

SusanK2
  • By SusanK2
  • Posted July 23, 2008 at 12:27 pm

Wow, Angie, I wish my Senators were more like yours - his note actually addressed the specific request you made!

I contacted my senators right away, and asked my family and friends to do it too. We live in Illinois, and my husband and I received replies from Senator Durbin, though of course, not Senator Obama (no surprise!). The reply from Durbin was a boilerplate reply about funding NCI and CDC (which, as we know, don't have any line item spending for lung cancer) but lets hope his staff actually paid attention to the context.

Five of my family and friends confirmed that they had sent the emails, so now I am evaluating my address book looking for people who tend to be activists - and will make special appeals to them.

Also, thanks to Kay for the additional suggestions.

Susan

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