Women urged to lobby for funds to fight breast cancer

The president of the American National Breast Cancer Coalition has told a meeting in Dublin that breast cancer is not only a health issue but also a political issue.

Ms Frances Visco, who has persuaded the US government to spend millions of extra dollars on breast cancer research, was speaking at St Vincent's Hospital yesterday to generate support for an Irish version of her political lobbying group.

From its establishment in 1991 the group, fronted by Ms Visco, herself a breast cancer survivor, has grown to become what the Lancet medical journal has called "probably the most powerful medical consumer group in the world".

In 1991 the US government was spending about $90 million a year on breast cancer research. The cancer coalition formulated a plan outlining how more than $400 million could be spent. Ms Visco and her colleagues were initially greeted with "smiles and pats on the head" by politicians in Washington, she said.

"But we told them, `You can find billions of dollars when you want to. We are here to tell you have to find $400 million for breast cancer research because women in this country have declared war on breast cancer and you have to fund that war'."

In 1993 President Clinton appointed Ms Visco to the President's Cancer Panel and she was reappointed in 1996. She was a partner in a Philadelphia law firm until April 1995, when she resigned to work solely on the group's activities.

However, she insisted the success of NBCC was due to the "incredible passion and commitment" of the organisation's 60,000 members in 500 organisations across the US.

"The power of the NBCC is not in one person or 10 or 20 people, it's in the thousands and thousands of women and men in the organisations which make up the network."

Ms Visco called on Irish women to take an example from their US counterparts and educate themselves about the science of breast cancer. This would make them "equal collaborators" in the fight against it with the scientific community. "We began to educate ourselves about the science of breast cancer because we wanted a seat at the table to decide how those dollars we fought so hard to get would be spent. We believe women are capable of understanding complexities. They may be confused initially but ultimately they can make a decision."

She understood the financial barriers facing the establishment of such a group here. "In terms of lobbying for research dollars, the US is in a unique situation, but there are things you can do here," she said.

"I can tell you what our experience is in the US. There are things you can take from it and adapt it to your country, your political system, your culture."

Among the groups at the meeting in St Vincent's yesterday was Europa Donna Ireland, the Irish branch of the European breast cancer advocacy group.

"Breast cancer isn't a US problem and it isn't a problem in Ireland only. It's a worldwide problem and one we all need to solve," Ms Visco told them. "If you don't like it, then change it."