Despite a steady rain, volunteers from across the country and the political spectrum converged on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., recently to remember people who have died of cancer, part of an annual volunteer fly-in organized by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.(Charlotte Kesl for KFF Health News)
Mary Catherine Johnson is a retired small-business owner from outside Rochester, New York. She voted for Donald Trump three times.
Lexy Mealing, who used to work in a physician’s office, is from Long Island. She’s a Democrat.
But the women share a common bond. They both survived breast cancer.
And when the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network organized its annual citizen lobby day in Washington last month, Johnson and Mealing were among the more than 500 volunteers pushing Congress to keep cancer research and support for cancer patients at the top of the nation’s health care agenda.
The day is something of a ritual for groups like the cancer organization.
Mary Catherine Johnson is a breast cancer survivor and former small-business owner. She lives outside Rochester, New York. (Charlotte Kesl for KFF Health News)
Lexy Mealing is a breast cancer survivor who lives on Long Island in New York. She used to work at a physician’s office. (Charlotte Kesl for KFF Health News)
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This year, it came as Democrats and Republicans in Washington slid toward a budget impasse that shut down the federal government. But these volunteers transcended their political differences and found common ground.
“Not one person here discussed if you’re a Democrat, if you’re a Republican,” said Mealing, one of 27 volunteers in the New York delegation. “Cancer doesn’t care.”
Every one of the volunteer lobbyists had been touched in some way by the deadly disease, which is expected to kill more than 600,000 people in the U.S. this year.
Johnson said each of her mother’s 10 siblings died from cancer, as did a lifelong friend who died at age 57, leaving behind his wife and two young daughters.
Like many of the New York volunteers, Johnson also said she’s worried about the state of politics today.
“I think we’re probably the most divided that we’ve ever been,” she said. “That scares me. Scares me for my grandchildren.”
Katie Martin, a cancer volunteer from outside Buffalo, also worries. She and her daughter recently drove past political protesters screaming at one another on the street.
“My daughter is silent and then starts asking, ‘What is this?’ And I don’t know how to explain it, because it doesn’t even make sense to me,” she said. “It’s very heartbreaking.”
Katie Martin lost a close friend to cancer. She is a family law attorney from outside Buffalo, New York.(Charlotte Kesl for KFF Health News)
Mealing said she can barely watch the news these days. “A lot of Americans are very stressed out. There’s a lot of things going on.”
Americans are indeed split over many issues — immigration, guns, President Trump. But helping people with cancer and other serious illnesses retains broad bipartisan support, polls show.
In one recent survey, 7 in 10 voters said it’s very important for the federal government to fund medical research. That included majorities of Democrats and Republicans.
“It’s rare in today’s environment to see numbers like that,” said Jarrett Lewis, a Republican pollster who conducted the survey for patient groups. “But almost everybody in this country knows somebody who’s had cancer.”
Similarly, a recent KFF poll found that three-quarters of U.S. adults, including most Republicans who al …