The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

6 The Health Bulletin April, 1951where cancer research is under way.A nickle and a dime! They won't buymuch in this day of inflation. But thathumble sum may save several lives!Divide the cost of one medical film purchasedby the State Division of theAmerican Cancer Society (average costwholesale, $160.00) by the number ofNorth Carolina physicians seeing it inone year. There are approximately threethousand doctors in the state. Beforetwelve hundred have seen the film, theexpenditure will have fallen to fifteencents or less per physician viewing it.Who would hesitate to invest fifteencents to bring his doctor the latest techniqueson cancer? Who dares guess howmany patients will benefit?Since, we are told, more has beenlearned about cancer in the past decadethan in the previous three thousandyears, even our youngest doctors arebusily engaged in professional study ofcancer. This job of professional educationis a tremendous one involving thenation's leading medical authorities. Itis too big for North Carolina to swingalone. We have asked—demanded moreaccurately expresses it — that our nationalofiice, through its Medical andScientific Division, develop the programand tools the doctors of our state andthe other forty-seven deserve and want.To defray the cost of this vital workand other tasks too cumbersome for usat county and state levels— we send ourdues, fifteen cents out of every dollar,to National. Over eight cents of the fifteengoes into education, chiefly professionaleducation; although it alsopays for the production of motion picturesand literature for the public. Youmen who have seen THE DOCTORSPEAKS HIS MIND and you womenwho have seen the new BREAST SELF-EXAMINATION know what potentweapons in life-saving our films are.Another two cents of the fifteen goesto the service program—to provide assistancein planning facilities (tumorclinics, detection centers, etc.) in NorthCarolina and throughout the nation.North Carolina has ten times the facilitiesfor diagnosis and treatment ofcancer it had ten years ago, in 1941, butneeds still more. Our two cents will helpus plan them wisely. It also brings usthe latest techniques of making thecancer patient more comfortablethrough volunteer services such as surgicaldressings. With another two andour na-a fraction cents of the fifteen,tional office administers the work in research,not only for ACS but for theDamun Runyon and Babe Ruth cancerresearch funds, as well as all phases ofeducation and service at the nationallevel. The remaining three cents is devotedto the Cancer Crusade, which, asyou know, is the joint mass educationand fund-raising program during themonth of April, set aside by Act of Congressand Presidential Proclamation asCancer Control Month.Now we have paid our insurance forthe future, research, and have enabledour professional men to keep abreast ofthe rapid changes in the cancer front.What about the money we use righthere at home, the remaining sixtycents? What does it buy?Service to the cancer patient and thepotential cancer patient is an obviousand understandable objective of theAmerican Cancer Society. This servicetakes two forms: professional service,which is costly, and volunteer or layservice, which takes time and devotionbut which is done "for free" by trainedvolunteers, people of heart. By way ofillustration, since 1945 the county Unitsand State Division of the ACS havematched dollar for dollar with local Departmentsof Public Welfare on thehospitalization of indigent cancer patients.By the end of this fiscal yearthe five year total of that item will havereached or surpassed the hundred thousanddollar mark in this state. But canceris not limited to the poor. All citizensmust have access to facilities fordiagnosis and treatment of cancer. Agrant-in-aid of $25,000 of our moneyenabled the State Board of Health toactivate its Cancer Section three and ahalf years ago. That $25,000 served asa magnet to draw federal and, later,state tax money into the progressiveprogram of Cancer Detection Centersoperated across the state today by