September 21, 2006

Pryce Receives American Cancer
Society’s Highest Honor

Central Ohio Advocates Present Pryce with its Distinguished
Advocacy Award for Her Work on Patient Navigator Act

Washington , DC – On Wednesday, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) received the Distinguished Advocacy Award from the American Cancer Society (ACS) – the ACS’s highest honor -- at the Society’s Celebration on the Hill 2006 ceremony.  The Distinguished Advocacy Award is bestowed upon select legislators who have demonstrated valiant leadership and support in the field of public advocacy for cancer-related issues. 

More than 10,000 cancer survivors, advocates, and caregivers from both central Ohio and around the nation rallied on the National Mall to advocate for improvements to health care and cancer-related public policy.  Pryce addressed the attendees on the importance of advocacy, promoting sound federal policies, and advancing clinical research, and was joined on stage by the five ACS Ambassadors from her district.

In her remarks, Pryce highlighted recent breakthroughs in the fight against cancer.  “Cancer is no longer the mystery it once was.  We know more about prevention, early detection, and treatment than ever before, and today we know more about how to support cancer patients.  That is what today’s celebration is all about - giving us an opportunity to translate what we know about cancer into what we do about cancer.”

After the event, Pryce signed the ACS Cancer Action Network’s “Congressional Cancer Promise” – a pledge to support four ACS priorities in Congress:  making health system reform a priority; elevating prevention, early detection and survivorship; increasing the commitment to research; and expanding access to care.

"As a Member of Congress, I wholeheartedly share in the ACS goals of fully harnessing the resources of the federal government to find a cure to cancer, and to end the tremendous pain and suffering it brings to so many families,” Pryce said.  ”To be part of this celebration of life with cancer survivors, advocates and caregivers is profoundly humbling, and I thank the ACS and central Ohioans who came to Capitol Hill for their tireless efforts to defeat the disease.  They are the ones who spend their day to day lives in the trenches of this battle, and the ones to whom the world will be indebted when a cancer cure is ultimately discovered."

Pryce also lauded House passage of a resolution this week supporting the goal of eliminating the death and suffering due to cancer by the year 2015, a target strongly supported by the American Cancer Society.  “The 2015 target is about spurring hope into action, and making the impossible possible.  It is about working together and utilizing all the tools at our fingertips, from research to treatment to patient advocacy, to make cancer a manageable disease.”

Pryce was recognized in part as the author of the bipartisan Patient Navigator, Outreach, and Chronic Disease Prevention Act, legislation helping individuals in underserved areas navigate the health care system by putting in place patient navigators in community health centers, rural health facilities, or other entities.  The measure was enacted last year and Pryce is working to secure $5 million in federal funding to launch the program this year.

 

  Back