Geraldine Ferraro Testifies On Hill
Geraldine Ferraro, who revealed two days ago that she has blood cancer, told a Senate panel she hopes to survive long enough "to attend the inauguration of the first woman president of the United States."
The former Democratic vice presidential candidate was in Washington Thursday urging lawmakers to provide more research money for blood cancer research and to speed up approval of new drugs.
She claimed that promising new drugs take up to 10 years to reach the market.
Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma after her doctor detected an elevated white blood cell count during a routine physical exam in 1998.
The condition is treatable but incurable. Multiple myeloma leads to death within five years for half of its victims. Ferraro's condition was detected early, bettering her prognosis.
"Hearing that you have a disease that is incurable with an average life span of just three years does make one stop and take notice," she told Congress.
Mixing wit and humor with frontline testimony about her battle against cancer, Ferraro drew laughter, tears and applause from the crowd of several hundred people.
"I am a very lucky woman," Ferraro told senators.
She said that unlike many victims of the illness she has the health insurance and resources to obtain top health care and also has a supportive family.
Ferraro, 65, was upbeat and self-deprecating, describing how steroids she took early in her treatment made her slightly puffy.
"Which wasn't so bad, since all of my wrinkles disappeared without the cost or inconvenience of a facelift," she said.
The three-term New York congresswoman testified before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. Appealing for more federal funds for cancer research she urged the panel, "They need you and your colleagues in Congress to help."
Blood cancers - including leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma - account for 11 percent of all cancer deaths but only receive 5 percent of the National Cancer Institute's research funding, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said.
Hutchison, R-Texas, whose brother also has multiple myeloma, introduced legislation Thursday with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., to add $250 million to the National Cancer Institute's $200 million research budget for blood cancers. The bill also budgets $25 million for a blood cancer awareness campaign.
Ferraro won words of praise from Republican lawmaker Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican and a survivor of prostate cancer. He told Ferraro, joined by other cancer victims and doctors, "We hope we can give you as much money as possible."
Ferraro is among the first patients with multiple myeloma to receive thalidomide, the insomnia treatment banned in the early 1960s for causing birth defects.
Multiple myeloma is the second most prevalent blood cancer and represents approximately 1 percent of all cancers and 2 percent of all cancer deaths, according to the Multiple Myelma Research Foundation.
In 2000, there were 14,400 new cases of multiple myeloma in the U.S. and 11,200 deaths. The rate is especially high among black Americans and the elderly.
The death rate for all blood cancers is second only to lung cancer, Ferraro said, but research has been slow because different blood cancers respond to different drugs.
Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984 - the first woman to run as a major party candidate for national office.
She said a desire for privacy kept her from speaking out on her condition until now.
"That's one of the benefits of losing an election - you can keep your private life private," she said.
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