I’m Linda Blount, mother of two and National Vice President of Health Disparities for the American Cancer Society. Health equity is my passion.

We live in a country that spends more on healthcare than any other country. Yet, despite the $2 trillion spent on healthcare last year, there are many thousands of Americans who have cancer and who could die because they face real barriers to getting and paying for health insurance, prevention and treatment services and, life-saving information. For these Americans, there is a health equity gap. My role at the American Cancer Society allows me to focus on identifying these barriers and on what needs to be done to remove them.

As part of the American Cancer Society’s goals to eliminate health disparities, we are reaching out to women online to, first, raise awareness about this issue – we recently engaged some of you in a “health equity” conference call (please take a moment to listen to the podcast from the call to learn more about the issue).

Then, we want to equip you all with the information you need to help you do your part in preventing cancer – engaging in physical activity, eating healthy, avoiding tobacco use, and getting recommended cancer screenings.  Most importantly, we want to engage you in the fight for health equity in all communities, so that we can all celebrate more birthdays and be around for our families.

Consider the following:

• Only 60 % of women who should get annual mammograms
• Less than half of Americans 50 and over get colorectal cancer screenings
• If you’re significantly overweight or obese you have a much higher risk for developing cancer
• Americans without health insurance are more likely to have their cancer diagnosed late and have lower survival rates than those with insurance

You can listen to a podcast of the recent call I hosted with Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society. Then, we will start to talk about how the issues above can be addressed and how we can prevent thousands of deaths from cancer each year. I am excited to be a guest on this blog, and I’m looking forward to many interesting conversations about health equity. Welcome to the fight!