Sept. 28, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A longtime advocate for the fight against cancer, University of Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Mike Brey will team up with several Division I men’s basketball coaches and Indiana cancer survivors and volunteers in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to urge Congress to protect federal funding for cancer research and prevention program.
Brey will join hundreds of cancer-fighting advocates from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), and will speak at the event along with his counterparts Fran McCaffery from the University of Iowa, Mitch Henderson from Princeton University and Lon Kruger from the University of Oklahoma. Brey and the coaches plan to emphasize that the federal investment in cancer research, prevention and early-detection programs is vitally important to helping people prevent and fight the disease. ACS CAN CEO Gary Reedy and ACS CAN President Chris Hansen also will be in attendance at the event.
This will be the second time Brey will head to Capitol Hill in support of this program as he participated in the program’s inaugural event in 2009.
“Cancer is as much a public policy issue as it is a fight in the research lab and doctor’s office,” says Aurmaudra Bradley, Indiana’s lead ACS CAN volunteer from Westfield. “With their strong personal connections to cancer, Coach Brey and cancer survivors from Indiana will help show Congress that this disease must be a national priority.”
The event will be part of the annual ACS CAN Leadership Summit and Lobby Day, which has brought together more than 750 participants including cancer survivors and volunteers from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district. Advocates called on Congress to commit to proven cancer-control programs and research that develops better early-detection tools and treatments.
“I am honored once again to be part of ACS CAN’s Lobby Day and to be alongside some of my coaching colleagues as we focus on health-care reform and the fight against cancer,” Brey says. “This disease affects all of us at some point during our lifetime. It has touched my family, as my father is a cancer survivor. I look forward to speaking in front of members of Congress as we advocate for increased funding for cancer research.”
The coaches are members of Coaches vs. Cancer®, a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches. This group of more than 2,000 Division I, II and III college basketball coaches has made the commitment to beat cancer, raising more than $87 million since its inception to fund cancer research. In the South Bend/Michiana area, Brey has helped raise more than $2.5 million for the fight against cancer. In 2003, he received the CVC Champion Award, given annually by the CVC National Council and the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He also has been a national board member of the Council since February 2003.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.acscan.org.
— Bernadette Cafarelli, Assistant Athletics Director(the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network also contributed to this release)