Ontario Citizens Cancer Coalition

Who are we: The Ontario Citizens Cancer Coalition (OCCC) is a charitable non-profit community based organization of cancer patients and concerned citizens. Our purpose is to demand that the Ontario Government take a leadership position in providing cancer patients access to newer intravenous cancer drugs and accessibility to PET Scans imaging.

What do we want: Gain commitment from political parties to change existing processes and policies that will result in positioning Ontario as a leading province in health care for cancer patients. This means that Ontario will lead in providing cancer patients with access to new intravenous cancer drugs and PET Scan imaging. We want commitment to bring Ontario at par with British Columbia for access to new intravenous cancer drugs and at par with Quebec for access to PET Scan imaging by the end of 2008.

Why: Ontario is... the second worst province in Canada in terms of providing access to newer intravenous cancer drugs and therapy, and the worst province in terms of providing access to PET scan imaging. In Ontario, only 4 from a list of 24 newer intravenous cancer drugs are fully funded for all citizens compared to 20 being fully funded in British Columbia. We believe Ontario should be at par with British Columbia. Ontario fully funds only six (6) PET scans for every 100,000 people, while Quebec has 209, Alberta 178, British Columbia 47 and Prince Edward Island 15. We believe Ontario should be at par with Quebec.

How people can get involved: 1. Become a member of our group and sign our petition at NoMoreWaiting.info; 2. Ask your friends and family to join 3. Use CARP E-Voice and send an email to your elected politician. We encourage you to send an email to your elected representative to force them to take action on health care now. The website NoMoreWaiting.info allows you to quickly find your elected representative and send them an email. 4. Distribute our Fact Sheet to as many people as you can and ask them to sign the petition at nomorewaiting.info 5. Speak to your elected representative and seek their commitment in bringing Ontario at par with B. C. in providing access to newer cancer drugs and at par with Quebec for PET Scan imaging by end of 2008. 6. E-mail us your cancer story - occc@sympatico.ca

Click here to get more facts on Ontario’s cancer record