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Why I'm "Here"

I did not choose to be on this Lung Cancer Patient/Advocacy Road; it chose me. Had my late mother not been diagnosed with late stage inoperable lung cancer, I can say with a fair amount of certainty, I would not be on this road. We never considered the possibility of lung cancer because we did not know the facts. Lung Cancer is Not Just for Smokers.
I became an advocate because I did not want one other family to face the shock that our family did. NO ONE IS IMMUNE from a lung cancer diagnosis. My goal is to empower people with information in order to give them a fighting chance. My goal is to reframe the issue of lung cancer in order to address the social stigma currently associated with the disease. My goal is to support increased lung cancer research to find the cure.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Francis Collins for NIH

Sorting through all the mail that accummulated while I was in SanFran I came across Newsweek; Lisa Miller writes about Francis Collins' nomination for NIH director - which is in a holding pattern waiting for the Senate Health Committee to recognize that it really can do more than one thing at a time.
I had the pleasure of meeting Francis (it seems he wants everyone to call him by his first name) at a hootenany that took place at the annual Genetic Alliance meeting. Yes, he is "born again" and I am not but no mattter. I would urge all of us to do what we can to speed his nomination along;while I may not agree with everything and everyone at Sloan Kettering, I do agree with what Harold Varmus (Sloan's director and a member of the selection process))said about Dr. Collins. Other NIH positions as well as NCI positions need to be filled as quickly as possible - approving Francis Collins is step number one on the road to personalized medicine
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