Haverhill wants to fight cancer in a big way.
Mayor John Guerin Jr. last month initiated a campaign to promotegreater cancer awareness in the city, with an emphasis on preventionand screenings. The program also aims to assist people with cancer,including helping them get to and from appointments.
"I'm a soldier in the war against cancer. I want others to joinup," Guerin said.
The city's "Crusade Against Cancer" program is patterned after asimilar venture that Boston initiated in 1997 in cooperation with theAmerican Cancer Society.
Last fall the American Cancer Society began an effort to encouragecommunities across New England to adopt local "Crusade AgainstCancer" campaigns following the Boston model. Haverhill was thesecond community, after Springfield, to do so, according to JanetMcGrail, vice president of community health initiatives for thesociety.
In all, 10 Massachusetts communities are in various stages ofadopting crusades. In addition to Haverhill, Amesbury has expressedinterest in starting a campaign, McGrail said.
For Guerin, part of the importance to begin the campaign stemsfrom a personal experience. His brother, Daniel, died in 2001 at theage of 33 from liver cancer, which had spread from colorectal cancer.As a result of the experience with his brother, "screening anddetection became a little nearer and dearer to me," Guerin said.
But he said he believes leading a community-wide effort againstcancer fits with his responsibilities as mayor. "The two mostimportant things we do are protecting and educating our citizens," hesaid of mayors. "This may not be a traditional way of doing that, butit incorporates both. I do believe it's a public safety issue. It's apublic health issue. Certainly, it's an educational issue. It'sprotecting my citizens. I don't think there is anything moreimportant that I do."
JoAnn Farina, the American Cancer Society executive for cancercontrol in the region that includes Haverhill, said she is thrilledto see the city initiate a crusade.
"It will empower the community to know how to reduce their risk ofcancer," and "improve the quality of life for those people livingwith cancer," said Farina, whose office is located in Newbury.
According to Farina, 616 women and 527 men died of cancer inHaverhill between 1994 and 1998. Farina said four types of canceramount for more than half of the cancers in the city: lung, breast,prostate, and colon.
"With what we know today, we can either prevent or detect earlyeach of those cancers and treat each of these cancers and treat themsuccessfully," she said.
Farina said the crusade will build on existing initiatives in thecity to fight cancer, including the annual "Relay for Life," a 24-hour fund-raising event for the American Cancer Society that the cityhas held at Northern Essex Community College for the past nine years.
Among the members of the task force is Anthony Maccario. AnInternet consultant, Maccario had first-hand experience when the 20-year-old daughter of a coworker died of melanoma, the most seriousform of skin cancer, in 2001. Following the death of Molly Biggane,her father, who lives in New York, started a foundation in her nameto raise money for preventing and researching melanoma.
Maccario said Guerin is doing "a great thing" by initiating thecampaign because "he is increasing the awareness of cancer."
Guerin said the task force will help develop the details of thenew crusade. But as part of the campaign he wants to duplicate apolicy mayor Thomas Menino instituted as part of the Boston campaignthat provides city employees with four hours of paid time each yearto use for cancer screenings.
According to McGrail, who formerly directed the Boston program,during the first month the screening policy was in effect in Boston,a member of Menino's personal staff discovered she had breast canceras a result of being screened. Two other women found they hadmelanoma. McGrail herself was diagnosed with a more common form ofskin cancer, for which she was successfully treated.
Another feature of the crusade will be to step up efforts to spurpeople to protect their skin from the sun.
Haverhill currently teaches children about the subject each summerat private camps and at its recreational camp at the high school,according to the city's public health nurse, Debra McLaughlin. Butshe said that effort could be expanded to serve other youth sportsgroups around the city.
Guerin said he would like Haverhill to do something similar to aprogram in Boston in which the city distributed beach pails tochildren that included shovels, sunscreen, and informationalbrochures on skin cancer. The crusade might include other educationalevents, the mayor said.
He said he is also interested in exploring whether the city mightbe able to use a bus to take cancer patients to and from theirappointments, if they lack transportation. That service wouldcomplement an existing program offered by the American Cancer Societyin which volunteers drive people to appointments. Farina said thesociety is planning to expand that program across the MerrimackValley.
"The sky's the limit," Guerin said of anticancer measures. "Wehave to decide as a community what kinds of things we want to do andcan do in the practical sense."
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