I’ve about had enough of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. They ignored the requests of MET UP and Metavivor to include treatment for the already-metastasized patient in their Deadline 2020 plan–they say mets research is too hard, so their plan to end breast cancer is to just prevent future breast cancers and metastases, and I guess just let those of us with mets already to die off. Think I’m kidding? Read about how they treated the one metastatic patient in the room at their Artemis meeting. It was cruel, and bullying, and silencing of a patient who is actually dying of this disease.

So, this weekend, they’re having a summit and lobby day to promote their plan that excludes treatment for metastatic patients. It’s Senate bill 746, known as the Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act. Sounds exciting, right? What will this bill do to, you know, accelerate the end of breast cancer? It’ll create a commission. That’s it. That’s the whole bill. A commission. Because lord knows a presidential commission is all we need to end breast cancer, amiright? We just need a few handpicked people, like, say, the director of NBCC, and suddenly everything will be fine and breast cancer will disappear. Hooray!

Did I mention that the bill says that the primary duty of the commission is to “identify, recommend, and promote initiatives, partnerships, and research within the public and private sectors, basic and applied sciences, and epidemiology that can be turned into strategies to prevent breast cancer and breast cancer metastasis.” Notice the part where they, once again, left out people who already have mets? It’s one thing for a lobbying group to reject our please for help;  it’s another thing entirely to entrench that cruelty in federal law.

This is why I oppose the Accelerating the End of Breast Cancer Act. Because it’s stupid and pointless and will literally do nothing to save my life. I hope you’ll all write, email, tweet, and otherwise contact your legislators to ask them to oppose Senate bill 746.