Lobbying With PanCAN in D.C.

First of all, I have to say I am NOT crazy about the name, PanCAN--waaay too cute. PanCAN is short for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

And pancreatic cancer is not a cute disease. (Are there ANY cute diseases? Other than breast cancer, of course.) It's a nasty one.

My father died of pancreatic cancer 30 years ago. He was diagnosed around Christmas time in 1976, and he died the following June at age 53.

My friend Jennifer, whose mother also died of pancreatic cancer, told me about the lobbying effort in D.C. in March, and I decided to join her. (Jennifer has a piece on my blog, My Mother's Garden, and also a blog of her own. See Inner Mayhem.)

I've done some lobbying at the state level, and written about it for my blog, so now I think I'll try my hand on Capitol Hill.

This is what I signed up for: Second annual Pancreatic Cancer Advocacy Day, March 9-11, 2008

If you go to the PanCAN Web site, you'll discover that purple is the color for pancreatic cancer. See PanCAN Web site.

If you're reading between the lines here, you may get the idea that I am not all gung-ho about lobbying in D.C. on behalf of funding for pancreatic cancer research. If you have that idea, you're right.

My gut tells me that all the other cancer advocacy groups wish that they could be as successful as the breast cancer folks in their lobbying and fund-raising efforts. And I have reservations about that.

Sara? Help me out here. Not sure I can articulate my reservations clearly at this point, but I'll come back to this topic. (Sara? Help.)

Read more: More on Pancreatic Cancer

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.