Healthline

By SUSAN ASCHOFF, MIKE WILSON, Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 17, 2002

MORTIMER BROWN will be there. The Lutz retiree is a three-year colon cancer survivor who formed a support group when he couldn't find one. The members call themselves the semi-colons.

Also there will be Joanna Bossa, a two-time breast cancer survivor from Seminole.

They're going to Washington for "Relay for Life Celebration on the Hill," a two-day gathering beginning Wednesday. Its purpose is to raise awareness and money to fight one of the nation's leading killers. An estimated 1.3-million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, the American Cancer Society says.

"We have to let Congress know it's a public health problem in the broadest sense," Brown, 78, said.

Brown and Bossa are ambassadors representing Florida's congressional districts 9 and 10. Ambassadors for all 435 districts will join an estimated 2,500 volunteers to walk a continuous relay around the reflecting pool on the National Mall. Senators and representatives are expected to stop by in support and take a lap or two as well.

Advocates want Congress to double the National Institutes of Health budget and fully fund the National Cancer Institute budget for research, Brown said.

"My hope," said Bossa, a mother of two daughters, "is that one day there is a cure."

Relay for Life began almost 20 years ago and has become the American Cancer Society's signature activity. Cancer survivors and participants organize teams to walk, run or otherwise move around a track to raise money and demonstrate resolve in the fight against cancer.

Events last year raised $212-million. More information is available at www.cancer.org.

Meanwhile, President George W. Bush has declared September National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. In Florida, advocates will ask legislators to increase funding for research and education.

An estimated 185,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.

FOR THOSE FORTUNATE women who survive breast cancer, author Sherry Lebed Davis offers Thriving After Breast Cancer (Broadway Books, $16.95), a book of exercises for the body and mind.

Davis, a former professional dancer and dance studio owner, wrote the book after seeing her mother become depressed and lethargic after a mastectomy. Davis and her two brothers, both doctors, designed an exercise program, called Focus on Healing, for her. The program has since been adopted by more than 100 hospitals.

Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 and used her exercise program in her recovery.

-- SUSAN ASCHOFF and MIKE WILSON, Times staff writers

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