Cody Women Lobby Congress for Cancer Funding

This week, three Cody women join nearly 700 cancer patients, survivors, volunteers and staff in our nation’s capital for the annual American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Leadership Summit and Lobby Day.

Advocates from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district will urge Congress to take steps to make cancer a national priority and help end a disease that kills more than 1,660 people a day in this country.

Michelle Lemmon, Shawna Little and Dawn Scott, all from Cody, are participating in the event, meeting with Sens. Barrasso and Enzi and Representative Cheney to ask for support in four key areas in the cancer fight.

Little says that this week, they are lobbying Congress to increase federal funding for cancer research, support improvements to patient quality of life, restrict flavors in tobacco products that attract kids, and increase access to colorectal cancer screenings for seniors.

All three women have been impacted by cancer. Little, a mother of two and the lead volunteer for ACS CAN in Wyoming, lost her young husband to cancer in 2005. Lemmon has lost several close relatives, and Scott, the grassroots manager for ACS CAN in Wyoming, is a cancer survivor.

Roughly one in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, including about 2,930 Wyoming residents this year alone.