Home > Newsroom > News Archive

CANCER SURVIVORS INVITED TO VOICE CONCERNS AT TOWN HALL MEETING ON NATIONAL CANCER SURVIVORS DAY

Local cancer survivors will help set national cancer policy as they address health-care access, job discrimination, insurance reform and other issues at a town hall meeting co-sponsored by the American Cancer Society, McAuley Cancer Care Center at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The event will be held on June 1 - National Cancer Survivors Day - from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at Washtenaw Community College's Morris Lawrence Building, 4800 E. Huron River Drive. A celebration reception for cancer survivors and their families will follow from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The meeting will kick off with a keynote address by Ellen Stovall, executive director of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) and a member of the President's National Cancer Advisory Board. Stovall is a 25-year cancer survivor who's recovered from two bouts with Hodgkin's disease, a malignancy of the lymphatic system.

Patricia Anstett, Detroit Free Press medical writer, will moderate the town hall forum, which will feature five panelists, including a U-M physician, a St. Joe's social worker, a health insurance representative, a legislator and a member of the clergy. The panelists will listen to the issues raised by cancer survivors and other stakeholders in the cancer community and then summarize what they've learned and how it will help them in their areas of practice. In addition, experts from various fields will observe the discussion, answer questions and respond to issues raised by survivors.

Panelists will include:

• Allen Lichter, M.D., professor and chairman of the U-M Department of Radiation Oncology and president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology;
• Linda Langmore, M.S.W., an oncology social worker at St. Joe's McAuley Cancer Care Center in Ann Arbor;
• Thomas S. Summerill, president and chief executive officer of Mercy Health Plans; and
• State Rep. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor.

Registration is encouraged; for more information, the public can call (800) 231-2211. Health care providers are urged to attend.

Return to top