Fighting Cancer is a Priority

Last Tuesday, February 9th I went to Albany with some 300 ACSCAN (American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network) volunteers from around the state to talk with our elected officials about making the fight against cancer a priority. My team met with Assembly Members David Buchwald (93rd), Steve Katz (94th), and Sandy Galef (95th), as well as with Senator Terrence Murphy (40th).

Because some 110,000 New Yorkers will be diagnosed with cancer in 2016, and nearly 35,000 are likely to die from cancer this year, we asked our elected officials to support three important policies:

1. Support cancer screenings. We asked our representatives to support the Governor’s $91 million breast and prostate cancer initiative which will provide much-needed access to screenings that save lives. Also, we asked them to make sure that the $25.3 million proposed in the Governor’s budget for the NYS Cancer Services Program is maintained – it, too, provides much needed access to screenings for New Yorkers who still have no health insurance, or are unaware of the importance of preventive screening.

2. Bring healthy food to children and families. Obesity is a direct risk factor in roughly 1/3 of New Yorkers’ cancers. Unfortunately many less affluent communities lack ready sources of healthy foods. The Healthy Food and Healthy Communities Fund (HFHC) has been a successful public-private partnership which has funded 20 projects across the state to help locate and renovate grocery stores and farmers markets in low-income areas. That fund has been depleted by these projects and the Governor did not propose to replenish the fund; we asked our representatives to fund the Healthy Food and Healthy Communities Fund at $15 million so more projects can follow on this success. We also asked for $3 million to improve access to healthy foods in corner stores/convenience stores so that our neighbors can as easily buy a healthy snack as a can of soda.

3. Help New Yorkers quit smoking. An astonishing 28,200 New Yorkers are likely to die from the effects of smoking this year. 16.6% of adults in New York still smoke. Many want to quit and need help to address their addiction. New York State takes in roughly $2.6 billion each year in tobacco revenue (from taxes and the Settlement Fund). Governor Cuomo has proposed to allocate only $39.3 million to the NYS Tobacco Control Program – we are asking our representatives to increase that to $52 million.

Please join me in telling our elected officials that you support these three simple requests that can save so many lives.

To learn more about ACSCAN, visit us at http://www.acscan.org/action/ny and follow us on Facebook.

Marcia Earle

Volunteer, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)

Ossining, NY