Cancer Champions Made Every Day (NAPSA)—Lance Armstrong, world-class cyclist and cancer survivor, is living proof of recent improvements in cancer treatment. Advances in care and medicines have boosted the five-year survival rate to nearly 60 percent. However, many people still view cancer as a death sentence. This year more than one million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer, and no one should be without hope. That's one reason Armstrong is speaking out through the Cycle of Hope”, a national cancer education campaign, to help arm people with knowledge and turn their fears into hope. “T was told at 25 years old, whenI thought I was on top of the world, that I had cancer and that I had less than a 50 percent chanceto live,” says Armstrong.“I wasterrified—I didn’t know anything about cancer or what to ask. That confusion leads to fear.” Three yearslater, after winning the grueling Tour de France, he became an international symbol of cancer survivorship and earned the title “Cancer Champion.” Armstrong encourages others to become Cancer Champions. “You have to know yourrisks for cancer, get screened and push hard to learn all your treatment options. Then you can turn your fear of cancer into hope,” says Armstrong. The Cycle of Hope offers a free educational kit and the Web site Lance Armstrong is speaking out for a national cancer education campaign that helps arm people with knowledge. www.cycleofhope.org with information useful to everyone. For healthy people, the kit contains information about the risks and symptomsof cancer. For those recently diagnosed and their caregivers, there are tips on fighting cancer, questions to ask doctors and nurses, and information about cancer and cancer treatments. The Cycle of Hope is helping people across the country. As one caregiver from Bakersfield, California wrote, “After reviewing the kit, I was able to ask my mother’s doctors some very important questions that I omitted from my first round of questions...I also went out and found a better treatment for her. Thanks in part to you, my mother is on the road to recovery...” For a free Cycle of Hope educa- tional kit, call 1-877-717-HOPE (4673)or visit www.cycleofhope.org.
