When We Think Globally and Act Locally We Build Bridges Around the World
By Bill Couzens, Founder, Less Cancer
In 2003 when I spoke up to protect children in schools from unnecessary and preventable pesticide drift, I did not have a clue as to how my life would change.
At the time, my son had asthma and several friends and loved ones were addressing cancer or had already succumbed to the disease. It did not “add up” to me that there were pesticide application sites setting up adjacent to elementary schools, increasing health risk for children. Unlike adults, children are “under construction,” with various bodily systems in developmental stages. Children eat, breathe and drink more relative to their body mass than adults. Therefore, pesticides can have devastating consequences for a child. They are linked to birth defects and conditions like asthma, as well as learning disabilities, Lupus, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s Disease and several types of cancer.
As a result of my speaking up in 2003, I was asked to collaborate on best practices for pesticide drift reduction specific to schools. Under the auspices of then-Virginia Governor Mark Warner I worked with a group of diverse thinkers and professionals in pest management, agriculture, the pesticide industry and government policy.
The following year, as the Next Generation Choices Foundation, the group quickly became known for our elevator speech: “Less Cancer.” Within a few years, Less Cancer’s message had spread, calling attention to many unnecessary and preventable health risks to children and adults. The charity had evolved from a grassroots movement into an evidence-based education organiztion focused on cancer prevention programming and securing public health.
With the emergence of blogs and social media, I soon had more opportunities to connect and share Less Cancer’s mission — and have more conversations that would lead to securing public health. What began as a small local effort to protect children from pesticides in Fauquier County, Virginia, spread to other communities and states until it was a global initiative addressing health issues all over the world.
I am a strong supporter of “local” efforts, but sometimes an idea catches on in areas far beyond the original vision. This has been the case with Less Cancer’s work in continuing medical education with our partners at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. It also led to our founding of the National Cancer Prevention Day and the National Cancer Prevention Workshop, and the initiation of the United States Congressional Bipartisan Cancer Prevention Caucus. These efforts are educating policymakers and legislators as well as physicians, nurses and public health professionals.
The recent Less Cancer Bike Ride, as a fundraising effort, I rode my bike 500 miles through several communities, starting and ending right here in the town of Warrenton,Virginia. As it turned out, I rode in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, Vermont, New York and Rhode Island. Other cyclists rode in places as far away as Italy, Spain, Mexico, Canada, California, Utah, and Florida.
However, many of our cyclists came from our hometown in Fauquier County, Virginia. Less Cancer is a local organization, with founding members and some board members that are living or have lived in Fauquier County. But we must not forget that this small local organization, with its grassroots funding, continues to have an expansive reach. It has been consistent and persistent in instituting change to protect public health and reduce cancer here not just hear in Warrenton, Virginia but in many “local” communities across the country and around the globe. Working locally has had an added benefit: it has helped guide communities in several countries bring about change. Cancer prevention is proactive work, not reactive; what makes our hometown healthier can help hometowns around the world.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
