An Iowan who’s chairman-elect of the board of the National Cancer Society is in the nation’s capital today. Gary Streit spoke with president Bush yesterday as part of the “Relay for Life Celebration on the Hill.”He said the president told them he’s committed to seeing there’s enough money for National Institutes for Health and National Cancer Institute, and told the visitors “in order to win the war against cancer, we have to fund the war against cancer.” Streit says the president talked to the visitors about how much Americans can do for their own health. He says it seems incredible but as the president said, two-thirds of cancers can be prevented with diet and nonsmoking lifestyles. The subject of cancer doesn’t mean the ambassadors are a gloomy bunch. He says there are people there who believe we can conquer cancer, energized messengers who are roaming the halls of Congress. Streit says it’s not discouraging that we haven’t won the war against cancer and stamped it out. When he began as a Cancer Society volunteer 20 years ago, Streit says they’d talk about a survival rate of 45-percent whereas today it’s and he says we’re “on the cusp” of some big breakthroughs. Streit says during their meeting with President Bush the ambassadors also met with Lance Armstrong, a bicycling champ who returned to the pro circuit after a battle with cancer in 1996. Lance Armstrong was there, a reminder that almost nine million Americans living today are cancer survivors with their own unique issues. There are tents on the Capitol Mall Thirty-five Iowans are among three-thousand trained named “Celebration Ambassadors” taking their local concern and support to their congressional representatives and others in Washington today. head this week to the
