An active volunteer with the American Cancer Society’s advocacy affiliate, Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), Anne Creech fights every day for funding of federal cancer programs.
“I talk to legislators and media people about keeping the dollars in research, or we’ll go backwards and people will suffer. You can’t stop research and start a year later in the same place,” says Creech.
But in July, 2010, Creech found that she needed to fight for herself. With no health insurance, she was diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer. For help, she turned to the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). The program covered the costs of her mammogram and allowed her access to Medicaid to cover her surgery and other treatment expenses. The surgery bill alone was $29,000, more money than she might earn in a year. Creech, who has also survived colon cancer, is grateful.
“Choices like that for some people lead to bankruptcy or kill them,” says Creech. “Sometimes people have to choose between treatment, food, or their home.”
‘I feel like I’m here for a reason’
Today Creech says her quality of life is terrific and she considers herself a healthy person. She says, “When I have been blessed to recover, I feel like I’m here for a reason: to get other people through this.”
In addition to her volunteer work with ACS CAN, Creech also volunteers with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and she speaks to people who have recently learned they have cancer.
“I talk to cancer patients because I was blessed with a happy attitude,” says Creech. “Those words are scarier than anything you will ever hear. Everybody loves you and is around you and I feel that. But I am the one who is fighting this disease in my body. I have to be courageous enough to make that decision to take care of cancer and do what I’m going to do to fight cancer.”
(From The American Cancer Society)
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