This 4th of July say Happy Birthday USA! in a uniquely Fight Colorectal Cancer way.

Send us a photo, create a video, or write a blog post that captures the spirit of colorectal cancer advocacy and US democracy. Let your creativity fly like the stars and stripes! 

We’ll post the most patriotic and colorectal cancer focused submissions on FightColorectalCancer.org throughout late June and July – and if your submission is posted, we’ll send you some free Fight CRC gear. Your submission must be original content. Videos should be less than 4 minutes long and blog posts under 500 words. You must have permission to publish from each person in your photos or videos.

Send submissions to enews@FightColorectalCancer.org with 4^th of July in the subject line by June 30, 2012.

[Our dear friend and advocate Pat Steer passed away on July 17, 2012. This was the last blog post she wrote for us.]

My friend Janet asked me last week if there were still things I wished I could do, any unfinished things on my bucket list. I thought for a minute before I said, “No.”

I’m sure Janet expected something like a wish to visit the Grand Canyon or take that cross-country sleeper train trip I’d always promised myself. What I really wanted to say, the first thing that came to mind: “I want to be strong enough to go upstairs and do a load of laundry.” Inconsequential as it seems, climbing the stairs to do laundry is where my head went when asked about my bucket list.

I never had a formal bucket list; instead, I created long-term goals. Despite all the goal-maker’s advice, mine were never written down, and were flexible, but I did get to most of them. I didn’t make yearly resolutions; I made training goals for my dogs. I set goals to pay off credit cards and become debt-free (and did it). I set a goal to pay off my condo in 10 years (and did it). Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Indran Krishnan and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

Indran Krishnan, MD, FRCP (London), FRCP(C), FACP, FACG is fighting colorectal cancer on many fronts. As a gastroenterologist, he personally screens people every week. As an associate professor at Emory University, he trains the next generation of physicians. As an advocate, he serves on Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Board of Directors, and was a founding member of the Georgia Colon Cancer Coalition. In the first 4 months of 2012, Indran stepped up his efforts by:

• Meeting with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and members of the Georgia legislature to introduce them to Fight Colorectal Cancer and spread the word about screening;
• Attending this year’s Call-on Congress, our annual advocacy training and lobby day; Read the rest of this entry »

Lesa Fontaine with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

Since President Clinton issued the first Presidential Proclamation recognizing March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month over a decade ago, each year in March advocates request that their state and city officials issue proclamations acknowledging March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

This year was no different – except for the fact that we had more states and cities than ever proclaim March Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and it was all thanks to Fight Colorectal Cancer advocates.

Seventeen states and four cities and counties issued proclamations – and each one was accomplished because at least one advocate stepped forward and took the lead.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank every person who pushed for a proclamation this year. They are:

Read the rest of this entry »

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) says that declining budgets at the National Institutes of Health a crisis standing in the way of bringing cancer research to patient’s lives.

For the past ten years, NIH budgets have been essentially flat.  Factoring in rising research costs, flat funding means a loss of nearly $6 billion dollars in purchasing power.

AACR is calling on its members and the advocacy community to work even harder with Congress to invest in medical research.  The AACR board of directors said,

Therefore, the AACR announced this morning that it plans to redouble its efforts to engage with Congress to make research funding a higher national priority, raise public awareness of the importance of continued investment in cancer research, and call on its 34,000 members and broader advocacy community constituencies to join together to help better explain and illustrate the value of cancer research and biomedical science to the economic health and well-being of this nation.

AACR President Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH said,

We already see the effects on our most precious resource, young investigators. This is potentially disastrous, as we are relying on them to ensure the continuing pipeline of new discoveries that will have ever greater impact on the welfare of patients and the public health.

AACR is holding its 2012 annual meeting in Chicago this week – Accelerating Science: Concept to Clinic.