Today is National Cancer Survivors Day, which gives us a special opportunity to celebrate those who have battled this disease and lived to tell about it.
Hats off to all of us!
According to the official National Cancer Survivors Day website, there are more than 32 million cancer survivors worldwide — and nearly 17 million in the U.S. This includes everyone who has any history of cancer, from the moment of diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.
We can all take a moment today (and every day) to cheer new treatments that offer us more hope than ever. There is still much more work to do, and some cancers remain heartbreakingly resistant to treatment. But in many cases, the odds are increasingly in our favor.
Celebrating these victories, however, is only part of the goal today. The other piece of National Cancer Survivors Day is raising awareness about the challenges that cancer survivors continue to face even after treatment ends.
“Cancer survivors face ongoing, often long-lasting, hardships because of their disease. On National Cancer Survivors Day®, we want to raise awareness of the many challenges of cancer survivorship and advocate for further research, more resources, and increased public awareness to improve the lives of cancer survivors.” Laura Shipp, spokeswoman for the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation, said in a press release.
Without getting all political, we can’t let this day pass without a reminder that we must remain vigilant and alert to proposals in Washington, D.C., that would undermine hard-fought gains we have made as cancer survivors.
The Affordable Care Act wasn’t perfect. But it provided very real relief to people who’d had cancer and lived in fear of losing their health insurance, being unable to obtain a policy, or exhausting a lifetime cap on benefits. We must ensure that we don’t return to the days when pre-existing conditions could block cancer survivors from health insurance — either because we can’t get coverage at all or because we can’t afford the cost.
So, yes.
Today, we celebrate survival and the progress we’ve made, thanks to effective treatments and access to care. Tomorrow, we must continue to fight — or risk losing very valuable ground.