Help Support the DOD Ovarian Cancer Research Program

I received an e-mail this morning from OCNA regarding the appropriations for the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program  for fiscal year '15 .  I was happy to read that the author of the Senate Letter of Support for the $20M appropriation bill was no other than my NJ Senator , Robert Menendez. He has always been a strong supporter of cancer research.

If you are an ovarian cancer survivor, caregiver of an ovarian cancer survivor or family or friend of a survivor,  please click on this link (http://capwiz.com/ovarian/issues/alert/?alertid=63148556 ) , fill out this form ( a letter is already written for you) and send an e-mail to your Senator. Hurry... the Senator's signatures are required by 5pm on May 1st.

Thank you on behalf of all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

It Really is about Research Dollars

Over the holiday weekend there were many posts on facebook about Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I myself posted about hanging ribbons with the Lopez family in Edison. I have been hanging ribbons with them for over 5 years.

Then a friend posted her status. Let me paraphrase what she wrote.

I hope everyone out there hanging ribbons to raise awareness will work hard to lobby their Congressman to support cancer research funding. 

I agree with her 100%. It is wonderful to make women aware of the disease and its symptoms. This way women will get diagnosed at earlier stages. But we also need, dare I say even more than awareness,  the research to better understand the disease,  to develop a screening test for the general public and to better treat the disease. 

We need more federal dollars for research and more private research dollars. 

Lets look at the estimated FY 2013 NIH funding for 3 gynecologic cancers and HPV vaccine research provided by the NIH at

http://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx

Cervical Cancer - $113 million

Ovarian Cancer - $148 million

Uterine Cancer -  $  42 million 

HPV/ cervical vacccine - $ 26 million

Together they do not equal the $800 million for breast cancer research. Actually most other cancers get more federal research dollars. Only Pancreatic and Liver cancer get lower funding than the gynecologic cancers. 

There is also an Ovarian Cancer Research Program(OCRP)  as part of the Department of Defense (http://cdmrp.army.mil/ocrp/ ) . The DOD OCRP program has a $20 million budget for 2013. 

So when the time comes for research budget discussions please spend the time to e-mail or call your congressman to ask to increase the funding for ovarian cancer research. Or if a local ovarian cancer organization raises funds for research through walks or auctions or other events - make a donation.  

Ribbons matter but funding for research is the key to save women's lives. 

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing!

Speaking for all Ovarian Cancer Survivors

I had the pleasure of meeting Susan Leighton when I attended the ASCO meeting in June. Susan was also one of the Focus on Research Scholars ©. With our common focus on ovarian cancer research and our we attended many of the same sessions and quickly became friends.

Susan was asked by the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance to represent all ovarian cancer survivors and provide testimony to the Senate Appropriation Subcommittee on Defense. She was urging the subcommittee to provide flat funding of $20 Million for ovarian cancer research. You can read her own words here. There was also a nice article on the website Alabama Live regarding her appearance on Capital Hill.

Way to go Susan!

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing!