http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fran-drescher/cancer-schmancer_b_58951.html

When I say "Cancer Schmancer," it's not to pretend that cancer isn't
serious or deadly; believe me, I know firsthand that it is. "Cancer
Schmancer" means "Cancer is not the boss of me!"

I got famous, I got cancer, and I lived to talk about it. It took me
two years and eight doctors to get a proper diagnosis. You've heard of
a second opinion? Try seven "second" opinions. Honey, I got in the
stirrups more times than Roy Rogers! After two years of misdiagnosis
and mistreatment, I discovered that I had uterine cancer. Fortunately,
it is a relatively slow-growing cancer, so it was still in stage one.
But I had to get a radical hysterectomy, which is not an easy thing to
endure. Other women have it much worse; when you are misdiagnosed you
lose precious time.

There are thousands of talented, dedicated men and women who work
every day to find a cure for cancer, and God bless 'em. But cures are
few and far between. In the meantime, we women must take control of
our bodies, and put ourselves on the winning side of this battle.

Here's where my organization, Cancer Schmancer comes in. Cancer is
most easily treated when it's in stage one of its growth, but during
this stage its symptoms are often mistaken for far more benign
illnesses. We all know that medical testing is expensive, and that
insurance companies don't want to pay. But what we don't know is
killing us. 80% of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed in the late
stages, and 70% of them die. Those numbers are crazy!

What's crazier is that when a woman goes for her basic gynecologic
exam, nothing north of the cervix is looked at beyond the archaic and
ineffective manual pelvic exam (still standard procedure even though
it's been around since my Aunt Ida was a girl! Oy!). That's not
because the technology doesn't exist; the transvaginal ultrasound is
much more thorough. But insurance companies don't want to pay for
thorough testing, and most women don't even know to ask for it.

The mission of the Cancer Schmancer Movement is to arm women with
information so they can become better partners with their physicians,
transform into medical consumers, and not remain helpless bystanders.
Second, we are galvanizing women and alerting Capitol Hill that the
collective female voice is louder and more powerful than the richest
corporate lobbyist. We're also lobbying for legislation to increase
diagnostic tools and cancer screening tests as part of basic health
care.

So, help us save lives by ensuring that all women's cancers are
diagnosed in Stage 1, when they're most curable. Lock elbows with me.
Together, we can demand thorough testing from health insurance
companies and vote for politicians who make women's healthcare a real
priority.

The daughters of tomorrow will look back and thank us, the visionaries
of today, for giving them a world in which no woman has to die of
cancer due to late stage diagnosis.

Put on your sunblock, and get ready for a brighter tomorrow. Log onto
www.CancerSchmancer.org today, and join our free membership. Together
we'll make history while saving our very lives!