Miss America 2024 winner Madison Marsh took her efforts to advocate for pancreatic most cancers consciousness and analysis to Capitol Hill on Thursday.
In affiliation with the Pancreatic Most cancers Consciousness Community (PanCAN), Marsh met with eight representatives on the Hill to push for elevated funding for pancreatic most cancers analysis throughout the Nationwide Institute of Well being (NIH), the Nationwide Most cancers Institute (NCI) and analysis packages throughout the Division of Protection.
Marsh and Julie Fleshman, president and CEO of PanCAN, met with a wide range of legislators from each chambers, together with members from the Home and Senate Appropriations Committee, the Home Methods and Means Committee, and the Senate Well being Training, Labor and Pensions.
“Life is too short,” Marsh informed The Hill. “I want to make sure that everyone, to the fullest extent possible, has all of the resources to equip them to survive a disease like pancreatic cancer.”
The pair additionally met with Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)
Marsh’s mom handed away from the illness in 2018 when she was simply 41 years outdated. As a part of her mission on Capitol Hill, Marsh hoped to share her story and people of others affected by pancreatic most cancers.
Fleshman and Marsh advocated for a rise to $51.3 billion in NIH funding in addition to for NCI funding to rise to $7.93 billion and the Division of Protection sector to spice up its normal most cancers analysis to $25 million, with a selected allocation for analysis centered on pancreatic most cancers.
“We are educating members of Congress about pancreatic cancer, about the risk factors, the symptoms, the fact that there is no early detection test, the fact that there aren’t enough treatment options,” Fleshman said. “The way we solve for the all of those things is by increasing research funding for for the disease.”
Pancreatic most cancers is at present probably the most tough cancers to deal with, sitting at a five-year survival charge of simply 13 %.
Nonetheless, Fleshman famous that there’s a lot of “momentum” within the pancreatic analysis area. In 1999, the survival charge for the illness was simply 4 % when there was minimal federal and philanthropic funding in pancreatic most cancers analysis, she stated.
Marsh and Fleshman met with representatives with a “personal connection to the disease,” together with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.). Different lawmakers the pair met with embody Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
“We can’t make more change if we’re not putting in the time and the real work,” Marsh said. “It starts with people right here in D.C.”
