Department of State, September 2008

September 8, 2008
Washington, D.C.

Photo Courtesy of Mark Stewart, U.S. Department of State

ASSISTANT SECRETARY AMERI: Well, good morning, everyone. I want to thank you all for joining us for the announcement of our third American Public Diplomacy Envoy, someone whose passion and personal story will help us share the best of America with the rest of the world.

I strongly suspect that everyone smiles when they see Fran Drescher or even just hear her name. They smile and they feel a bit lighter of heart because Fran Drescher is a star whose name has always been associated with warmth, with humor, and with caring.

Having said that, I strongly suspect that most of her millions of fans and admirers are not aware of how she’s attempted to live by those values in her personal life. They may know of her own battle with uterine cancer, but I suspect that many of them are not aware of how much she’s done to help others. Fran Drescher founded a non-profit organization called – what else – Cancer Schmancer, that works with various health organizations and women’s groups in raising awareness of women cancer, patient empowerment, and advocacy. She successfully lobbied for the passage of Johanna’s Law, which promotes gynecological cancer education and awareness among women and healthcare providers.

Fran, let me take a moment to thank you personally for your efforts. There are hundreds and thousands of cancer patients in the world, including two of us right here in this room, who owe our survival, who owe the gift of life and the ability to see our children grow, to early detection. Your work and your passion will continue to serve thousands of lives.

Fran has received many honors for her work advocating for cancer awareness, including the John Wayne Institute Women of Achievement Award, the Gilda Award, the City of Hope Women of the Year Award, the Hebrew University Humanitarian Award, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Spirit of Achievement Award. It is for these reasons and qualities such as an irrepressible optimism, courage, outreach to others, qualities that truly represent America that make her an ideal representative, an ideal envoy of the American people to the world.

And I believe there’s no greater privilege, no greater responsibility, than representing the people of America overseas. As someone who’s traveled a great deal in the past few months to meet people all over the world – from the Middle East to Latin America to Asia, and as a first generation immigrant, I know that the American people’s compassion, tolerance and kindness engage people all over the world.

I would also like to thank Fran for accepting to be one of the judges for an international video contest that will take advantage of new Internet technologies, such as social networking to further amplify our people-to-people exchanges.

The journeys taken thus far by American Public Diplomacy Envoys, legendary baseball player Cal Ripken and Olympic Medal winner Michelle Kwan show clearly the tremendous power of people-to-people engagement in the world, show clearly our fundamental common humanity and our shared aspirations. We know that Fran Drescher will touch the hearts of other people. As she has overcome challenges in her own life, as an American Public Diplomacy Envoy, she will lead past the barriers of language, nationality, age or background. It is with the greatest of pleasure that I introduce Fran Drescher. (Applause.)

MS. DRESCHER: Ms. Drescher goes to Washington. (Laughter.) Thank you, Secretary Rice and Assistant Secretary Ameri, and family, friends, and distinguished guests and the press, of course.

I am so honored to stand here before you today as the newest Public Diplomacy Envoy. Not bad for a chubby girl from Queens. (Laughter.) I feel like I got famous. I got cancer and I lived to talk about it, so I’m talking. As a cancer survivor, I’ve made advocacy for Stage 1 diagnosis of cancer my life’s mission. It took me two years and eight doctors to get a proper diagnosis of uterine cancer. I got in the stirrups more times than Roy Rogers. (Laughter.)

How many people go for a second opinion when the doctor’s telling you, you’re essentially well? Well, I went for seven second opinions. And it’s a good thing I did or I’d surely be dead today. If only I knew then what I know now. But unfortunately, what we don’t know is killing us.

We need to transform from being patients into medical consumers, learn the early warnings symptoms of the cancers that could affect us and the tests that are available so that we may become better partners with our physicians; after all, it’s our bodies. And when the doctor calls to tell you you have cancer, at the end of the day, he goes home to eat dinner with his family while you go home to eat your heart out with yours. So whose life is it anyway?

Women, especially, tend to be intimidated by their doctors. Well, don’t be. Challenge him in the same way that you would your butcher who’s trying to sell you grisly meat. Also, women tend to subscribe to the Victorian sensibility that if you can grin and bear it, do so because your family comes first. Well, let me tell you something, when you put your family first, you’re really putting them last, because you’re useless to them when you’re six feet under.

Traditionally, the woman is the caregiver to the children, the spouse and the elders in most homes worldwide. It’s imperative that we as a society protect her health and well-being, for she is the very glue that holds the family together.

Cancer at its earliest stages, when it’s most curable, can be easily ignored or denied. But the day will come when you can deny it no more, and then it will be too late. My goal is to revolutionize the way we think about cancer, in terms of prevention and awareness. Everyone agrees that early detection equals survival. But what steps are patients, the medical community and government taking to ensure early detection?

I have a grave concern that women’s rights are eroding globally, and it is my determination to reverse this slippery slope back into the dark ages. When women are empowered with knowledge, we’re unstoppable. The 21st century must be the century of enlightenment for all women. We stand on the precipice of a new dawn. And my hope and vision is that the daughters of tomorrow will live in a world where women will not only play a significant role within the medical community worldwide, but that governments will unilaterally nurture more female-friendly societies as a whole.

I hope that I can exemplify to women everywhere that a diagnosis of cancer is not necessarily the end of the world, but sometimes the beginning of a new one. As a result of my cancer, I wrote The New York Times bestseller “Cancer Schmancer.” I founded the Cancer Schmancer Movement. And as a women’s health advocate, I was very instrumental in getting the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act passed by unanimous consent, a bill that was the first of its kind in U.S. history, which the President signed into law and Congress funded.

And as September and October are respectively gynecologic cancer and breast cancer awareness months, I think my message is especially timely, as I prepare to embark upon a four-country visit to Eastern Europe, where I will spread my message of self-empowerment, healthy living, and early detection. This first tour overseas will christen my work and commitment as U.S. State Department Public Diplomacy Envoy for Women’s Health Issues. I’m not glad I had cancer, and I don’t wish it on anyone, but I am better for it. Sometimes the best gifts come in the ugliest packages.

I am so proud to represent our great nation in this distinguished position. And I promise I will not let my countrymen down. As Robert Browning wrote, “Make your reach greater than your grasp. Else, what’s a Heaven for?” Thank you. Be well and God bless America and her military abroad. (Applause.)