TIFTON, Ga. (WALB) - Cancer advocates took their fight to the Gold Dome last month advocating for improved access to care in the Peach State.

Advocates with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) gathered on Wednesday, Feb. 4, to mark World Cancer Day with a proclamation on the House floor.

Among those there was a Tifton native, Lee Turner, who is a childhood cancer survivor and caretaker who also lost his mother and grandmother to cancer. He says survivors and caretakers bring a perspective lawmakers can’t ignore.

Turner said, “It definitely does because, you know, you as a survivor yourself, you know what you went through. But then as a caregiver... that caregiver sees everything. They’re there every day. They see the ups and downs, the goods and the bad. So with my experience, I’ve seen it all from all three perspectives.”

In a statement, ACS CAN Georgia, government relations director Fabienne Antoine-Nasser, said, “There are already around 500,000 people in Georgia’s health care coverage gap and with the expiration of enhanced tax credits for Marketplace plans, we know hundreds of thousands more people are now without health insurance. We implore lawmakers to come together and find a bipartisan solution to close the coverage gap in Georgia and will advocate for that on World Cancer Day at the Capitol.”

Advocates pushed for expanded Medicaid, restored tobacco prevention funding, and a tobacco tax increase — saying cancer outcomes in rural Georgia depend on it.

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