Volunteers want Congress to make cancer funding a priority. Kathi Hansen of Green Bay led the Wisconsin contingent of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, as hundreds of cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, their families, and staff converged on Capitol Hill Tuesday to ask members of Congress to make the fight against cancer a national priority.
“We want them to support cancer research, cancer screening and prevention programs, by restoring funding at the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control to the levels they were at prior to the sequester.” They’re also looking for increased funding for palliative care, and an increase in the federal cigarette tax, currently at $1.01, by 94 cents.
Hansen said it’s a matter of prioritizing. “Nationwide it kills over 500,000 each year. What could be more important than finding the answers to a disease that is so destructive?” Cancer of various forms kills over 11,000 people in Wisconsin each year.