NEWSBYLANCE ARMSTRONG

This is a guest post by Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, is a cancer survivor and founder of the LIVESTRONG movement whose goal is to support survivors throughout the world and make cancer a global priority.

On October 2, 1996, I was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer. Like most 25 year-olds, I was fearless, ready to conquer the world and, because I was in the midst of changing employers, without health insurance. I was lucky. One of my sponsors, Oakley, stood up for me and threatened to take all of their business elsewhere if their insurance carrier refused to cover me. Without their help, I might not be alive today. Or I might be completely broke, still trying to dig my way out of a massive pile of medical bills.

That kind of luck shouldn’t have anything to do with whether the 1.5 million people in the United States who will be diagnosed with cancer this year go broke trying to get the treatment they need to survive.