Cancer Coalition
One Voice Against Cancer is the leading national coalition of nonprofit cancer organizations – representing tens of millions of Americans – to advocate for increased public funding for cancer research and prevention programs. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US, exceeded only by heart disease. In the US, 1 of every 4 deaths is from cancer. When One Voice Against Cancer was founded in 2001, the National Institutes of Health estimated “that cancer was actually costing our nation $107 billion.”
With increasing competition for scarce federal resources, the cancer community – represented by dozens of different advocacy groups – often found itself in disagreement on strategy and messaging. The Sheridan Group joined with the American Cancer Society in bringing the largest cancer advocacy organizations around one table. One Voice Against Cancer was founded over a decade ago to develop strategy and drive advocacy efforts in Congress and with the Administration to increase the annual budgets of the National Institute of Health and Centers for Disease Control cancer prevention programs. The Sheridan Group has continued to provide the appropriations strategy and representation for the coalition, helping to successfully advocate for a 428% increase for the Colorectal Cancer Prevention and Control Initiatives and for a doubling of the National Institutes of Health budget. In 2007, for the first time in our nation’s history, US cancer deaths went down. Over the past 15 years, cancer death rates have dropped 11.4% among women and 19.2% among men.
