When:
Fall 2007

News from the New York State Breast Cancer Network

Contact: Andi Gladstone
PHONE: (607) 279-1043
FAX: (917) 591-8108
andi@lightlink.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The New York State Breast Cancer Network proudly announces that Governor Eliott Spitzer has signed into law two bills that the Network and its member groups have worked tirelessly to bring to fruition for the past 9 years. The Network is the only statewide network of community-based, survivor-driven breast cancer organizations in the United States.

Adding Breast Cancer Survivors to the Health Research Science Board (Chapter A9464 of 2007) will add six new breast cancer survivors to the Health Research Science Board. The Health Research Science Board tracks pesticide use in New York and allocates NYS funds for breast cancer research.

For the first time, breast cancer survivors, representing diverse communities across the entire state, will join the existing one statewide breast and one prostate or testicular cancer survivors. Five of the eight survivors on the Board will be voting members.

New York State now joins other states, the Department of Defense, and private foundations in recognizing the value of including breast cancer survivors as voting members of breast cancer research funding programs.

The Network, whose 23 member organizations collectively reach 100,000 people affected by breast cancer each year with information and support, knows well that only survivors have endured the rigors of diagnosis, staging, treatment, physical and psychological aftermath, and life-long monitoring that inform the standards and guidelines that research scientists and clinicians recommend.

This law will significantly enhance the effectiveness of the Health Research Science Board and advance New York State breast cancer research efforts. We are extremely pleased to have it a part of New York State law, said Andi Gladstone, Executive Director of the NYS Breast Cancer Network.
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The Breast Cancer Survivors Support Initiative (Chapter 623 of 2007) will provide state funding opportunities to community-based, survivor-driven breast cancer organizations that provide essential post diagnosis support and education services to people with breast cancer.

Network members know that survivor-driven, community-based services that grow out individual communities provide the most effective way to answer the myriad concerns and needs of people facing a breast cancer diagnosis. These community-based services are often overshadowed by the large fund-raising apparatus of local chapters of national organizations, but when people are diagnosed with breast cancer they often turn to their own community organization for help. Now, for the first time, New York State has recognized how essential these services are and, with this legislation, has established the first and only on-going NYS funding stream for these unique and far-reaching community-based, survivor-driven services, said Susan Cohen, NYS Breast Cancer Network Chair.

The New York State Breast Cancer Network has worked diligently for several years to see these two bills put into law. For more information about the Network activities, please visit our website: www.nysbcsen.org.