Elizabeth Edwards and Lance Armstrong Back New Health Legislation

Senators Ted Kennedy and Kay Bailey Hutchinson introduced legislation today entitled, the the 21st Century Cancer Access to Life-Saving Early detection, Research and Treatment (ALERT) Act.

According to the News-Observer:

The Kennedy/Hutchison bill would try to foster better research by linking various organizations and national cancer registries and by boosting funding. It would increase the focus on rare cancers with low survival rates, and would establish a state grant program for colorectal cancers.

The bill also would provide expanded access to clinical trials and set up a new biomarker program for early detection.

Elizabeth said:

"We know how to lengthen and improve the lives of people with cancer, but we've chosen as a nation to turn our backs on some of us who have the disease,” said Elizabeth Edwards. “I urge the United States Senate to embrace the ALERT Act and get it to the President's desk as soon as possible."

Armstrong's comment:

“In 2010, cancer is expected to be the leading cause of death worldwide. Every American is touched by this disease,” said Lance Armstrong, chairman and founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. “The 21st Century Cancer ALERT Act and its authors’ leadership in reforming our nation’s approach to the war on cancer are a very welcome step forward to every member of the LIVESTRONG movement.”

Both quotes are from Ted Kennedy's press release, here.

Many thanks to the senators for getting this bill out there. I hope they do act on it soon.

Hat-tip to Elizabeth Edwards News and to Kali Star at the Mother Earth Health blog. I'll be adding EE News to BW's blogroll.

Blogger Leroy Sievers Succombs to His Cancer

I was listening to ABC's "This Week" and learned that Leroy Sievers passed away. Sievers worked for ABC News for many years, and in the past 4 years, he had a blog for NPR entitled "My Cancer."

Here's the statement from the blog yesterday:

Dear friends:

I'm so sorry to bring you this news. Leroy passed away last night. It happened very quickly.

You will hear from Laurie later. In the meantime, please let me tell you something all of you already know, how much this blog and all your comments have meant to Leroy. He felt all the affection and good wishes and strength you sent him every day. He told us that of the many things he had accomplished, he was proudest of My Cancer. The connection he felt with all of you made such a difference in his life.

--Maeve McGoran

Many of you probably remember that Elizabeth Edwards and Leroy appeared with Ted Koppel twice: last year on the Discovery Channel, and about a month ago on NPR, when they were both looking at their lives over the past year. As I expected, Elizabeth Edwards posted a comment on My Cancer last night:

Leroy has died. That great big man with a voice that could curl itself around you like fingers and comfort you is gone. Our blessing is that we felt that comfort. Our pain is for those like Laurie closest to him and for Leroy himself, who had so much more life in him than he was allowed. We put aside our private pains today, and we think about the gift that he was, and the gift that he will continue to be. I for one will always hear the timber in his voice as the soothing promise that we can face whatever comes if we remind ourselves not to be so afraid that it falls short of perfect.
In my last short words to him, I read the lyrics to something Leonard Cohen wrote, something someone sent to me when I discovered my cancer had never left.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

To the light that was and is Leroy.

Sent by Elizabeth Edwards | 6:29 PM ET | 08-16-2008

My thoughts and prayers go to the Sievers family for their loss, and my heart is with Elizabeth Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards is Guest on NPR July 9th

This Wednesday, Ted Koppell will be the guest host NPR's daily news talk show, "Talk of the Nation."

The two-hour, two-topic show will include a discussion on living with cancer with guests Elizabeth Edwards and longtime Nightline producer Leroy Sievers.

Koppel, who'll host the show live from the Newseum, is sitting in for the regular host, Neal Conan, who is on vacation.

Source: TVNewser Blog

JRE will be on C-SPAN3 Live at 9am July 8th. Update: Video up of the speech.

Lance Armstrong's Foundation and ALA Team Up

via e-mail from the American Library Association this afternoon:

Lance Armstrong Foundation and ALA team up to deliver cancer survivorship notebooks to libraries

AUSTIN – The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) recently announced it is collaborating with the American Library Association (ALA) to provide libraries across the country with reference materials to better serve those seeking health-related information, specifically cancer. Recently, the LAF began shipping LIVESTRONG Survivorship Notebooks to more than 14,200 libraries across the United States.

"Libraries as places of opportunity that make information affordable, available and accessible to all people," said American Library Association President Loriene Roy. "We are pleased to work with the Lance Armstrong Foundation to bring this information to our libraries and to highlight our efforts in keeping our communities healthy and well-informed."

The LAF created the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Notebook to give cancer information access to everyone, especially low-income or uninsured citizens who don’t have access to a computer or are denied follow-up care after completing cancer treatment.

“As a cancer survivor and someone who grew up in a city where more than 95 percent of families use the public library, I recognize the importance of providing access to cancer resources through libraries,” said Doug Ulman, president of the LAF. “We created the Survivorship Notebook to help cancer survivors be inspired and empowered to live life on their own terms. I am proud that the LAF is partnering with the ALA on such a critical initiative.”

The LIVESTRONG Survivorship Notebooks are a free resource and are designed to help cancer survivors, their families and caregivers organize, keep and access important information related to their cancer experiences. The Notebooks are divided into four sections:

• Survivorship Tools – These tools help cancer survivors organize physical and emotional health concerns; maintain a list of medications; keep track of medical, financial and insurance records; and keep a record of medical history after treatment.
  
  
• Survivorship Stories – This section contains a booklet of stories told by real survivors about their experiences with cancer.
  
  
• Survivorship Topics – This section features information about the physical, emotional and practical challenges cancer survivors and their loved ones may face throughout their battle with cancer. Topics addressed in this section include: the aftereffects of cancer treatment, the emotional effects of cancer, planning your financial future and how to communicate with your health care team.
  
  
• Survivorship Updates – Cancer survivors can use the information in this section to request additional information about cancer survivorship to add to their notebooks. They can also add to this section information they receive from their own health care team, family members, support groups, caregivers and friends.

Individuals, groups and organizations can order the free LIVESTRONG Survivorship Notebook at LIVESTRONG.org.

This is fantastic. And I'm certain Elizabeth Edwards would approve.

To honor this initiative, here's the video of Lance and JRE from last summer riding together at RAGBRAI, and Lance said hello to EE.

John Edwards at the Livestrong Forum

John Edwards spoke at a forum in Cedar Rapids this morning sponsored by Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation, and MSNBC. Each candidate was given about 35 minutes to give an opening statement and answer questions by Lance and Chris Matthews. Edwards, the second candidate, got the loudest applause coming on and leaving the stage. It was clear that Edwards had command of his statistics and introduced the facts by asking a question of the audience: how many had been affected by cancer, either through family or loved ones? Most of the 1000 there raised their hand.

More JRE buzz l8tr...

pic courtesy of the Livestrong Foundation

Update: video of the woman JRE spoke of in the cancer forum. She had to take $50K out of her health care to survive 8 months of chemotherapy and being a single mom of 4 teenagers.

http://www.johnedwards.com/media/video/nh-tour-survivors-question/

Newspapers and Citizens Support Elizabeth Edwards

(pic courtesy of USA Today)

This week, more news and opinions have been brought out and center about the Edwards' decision to stay in the race for the duration. A USA Today poll indicated that 2-1 Americans support Elizabeth Edwards in her decision to continue help her spouse in his candidacy.

The Pilot, a NC regional news hub, presented a story about how Robbins' citizens believe Elizabeth is doing the right thing to "keep living."

But the Sun-Sentinel in Florida's Editorial Board lauded the Edwards couple in this opinion:

Role Models

Prayers, and more, for Elizabeth Edwards

The nation sends it prayers to Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards. It should also send its thanks.

Thanks for showing that you can try to go on living despite a sobering medical diagnosis. Thanks for handling with class all of those who are questioning and over-analyzing and second-guessing John Edwards' decision to stay in the race.

And thanks for being a living, breathing reminder to women of the importance of regular check-ups.

This is one strong family. They have dealt with the loss of a teenage son, and Elizabeth's previous cancer diagnosis prior to the 2004 election.

This will be their biggest challenge of all. So far, they have handled it with grace and courage.

Amen.

To the President's Press Secretary, Tony Snow, and to his family, I join the Edwards family in sending good wishes and prayers in his fight of cancer as well.

John and Elizabeth Edwards on 60 Minutes

I confess that I wish it had been Leslie Stahl who did this interview instead of Katie Couric. I think the interview went OK but it was Katie who tried to be a trial lawyer to outsmart the Edwards.

Wrong, she and 60 minutes are many times less experienced in what to ask their guests. If only this had been a real trial room. Katie's opposition would have smashed her to smitherines in this line of questioning.

Script is here.

Updated: Couple of thoughts

(1) Couric never mentioned her continuation to work and saying that she wanted her and her late spouse to be normal when he had cancer

(2) VP Cheney was seldom questioned by the media about his heart disease. His heart disease, like Mrs. Edwards' disease, was, and is treatable.

Taylor Marsh has some good commentary here.

Strength in Numbers

As Chancelucky alluded to on his comment on my last thread, Elizabeth Edwards has another health issue to tackle. As we await word (about 90 minutes from now), I found a post by Aldon Hynes at Orient Lodge that seemed to resonate with me about "the trick to being strong". With his permission, I am reposting its entirety here.

During my vacation, I found some time to start reading an advance copy of Jeffrey Feldman’s upcoming book, Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (And Win Elections). It is a great book that I hope anyone interested in politics spends some time reading.

We would do well to spend more time reading speeches of former leaders. The first speech analyzed is George Washington’s first inaugural address. He spoke about being called by “the voice of my country”. Feldman talks about the “humble servant” frame, of great leaders responding to a call by the country and a recognition that they it takes much more than just a great leader to solve our country’s problems, it takes the strength of the American people.
When my wife ran for State Representative in 2004, she reflected upon this theme in an address to the local Democratic Committee.

Perhaps I’ve been more involved than many people my age. I have always made it to the voting booth. However, other than voting, I never thought too much about my responsibility in the political process.

Then George W. Bush became president, and suddenly the America I grew up in seemed to be losing itself. A booming economy slowed to a trickle, and environmental legislation seemed to go backwards. September 11th happened, and then it seemed possible, for a brief moment, that we would come together as a nation and rally once more. We had the world’s sympathy and support. But that only lasted for a moment, and then we slipped even further into economic downturn and world isolation.

As I’ve watched the current presidential campaigns, I’ve wondered if anyone will embrace the humble servant frame. For the past forty years, our candidates have seemed to shun this frame. They have been caught up in the hero worship and the idea that if you vote for them, they will solve all our problems.

Gov. Dean challenged this idea by saying, “the biggest lie people like me tell people like you is that if you vote for me, I’ll solve all your problems. The truth is, you have the power.” Perhaps we, as a nation, are not at a place where we are ready to elect leaders that recognize and honor the power of the American people. I would have hoped that September 11th would have reminded us of that strength.

Yet as I’ve worked for campaigns and suggested that candidates admit that they don’t know everything and that they will need all the people around them working lend a hand, people looked at me as if I was nuts.

Perhaps I am, but I still have faith in the American People, in the empathy and compassion that made our country strong and has helped us through difficult times.

Today, we will see what sort of candidate one of the 2008 contenders is really is. Yesterday, John Edwards cancelled a campaign event to attend a doctor’s appointment with his wife Elizabeth. They will be having a news conference at noon, and ABC News is running with the headline Elizabeth Edwards' Health Could Halt Her Husband's Presidential Prospects.

Anyone who has helped a friend or family member fight something as devastating as cancer recognizes the wisdom that Elizabeth Edwards shared in her book Saving Graces: Finding Solace and Strength from Friends and Strangers: "There's a trick to being strong," she wrote, "and the trick is that nobody does it alone."

While I hope that there are no new complications in Elizabeth’s health, I do hope John and Elizabeth use this as a moment to remind all of us in the strength of the American People when they offer and accept help from the people around us. I hope that we focus on much more than people posting blog posts and videos online and instead call everyone to help those around them, whether it be a large One Corps organized events, or something as simple as bringing a casserole to a neighbor having a tough time. I hope that such actions help heal our country and move us closer to One America where we reach out not only to people like us, but to those who are different from ourselves.

Will Senator Edwards and his wife be able to return the leadership of our country to one that honors, listens to and recognizes the importance of relying on all the American people? I hope that will be the silver lining in the clouds of Elizabeth’s battle with cancer.

Amen, Aldon, and prayers for Elizabeth.