Biden to Visit UVM, Discuss ‘Cancer Moonshot'

Vice President Joe Biden will visit Burlington, Vermont, Friday morning to discuss the White House's Cancer Moonshot initiative.

Biden will speak at the University of Vermont, discussing the effort to accelerate research and to improve the lives of cancer patients.

Friday, Burlington will learn what the University of Vermont and UVM Medical Center are doing for cancer research, precision treatment, and genome mapping.

He will also lead a round-table discussion on cancer and its many impacts on individuals and the community.

Included on the panel for the discussion is the Williston-based Cancer Patient Support Foundation.

The non-profit provides financial assistance, funds counseling services, and acts as a resource to people across Vermont and northern New York through their diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

"It's hard to imagine a family that hasn't been touched by cancer, in some way," said Sarah Lemnah, the executive director of the Cancer Patient Support Foundation. "It's a bad club that most of us belong to. And it would be great if we could find a way to close that loophole so we don’t belong to that club anymore."

Lemnah said she plans to discuss with the vice president some of the pressures facing cancer patients in rural America. One example is the challenge and cost of securing transportation to treatment, which could be far away from where patients in rural Vermont live, Lemnah noted.

Cancer is personal for Biden. His son, Beau, died of brain cancer in May of 2015.

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