White House Provides Cancer Moonshot Updates, Mets Broadcaster Reveals Cancer Diagnosis and More

The White House announced new goals for the Cancer Moonshot.

A year after re-launching the Cancer Moonshot, which had the goal of decreasing cancer-related death by 50% within the next 25 years, the White House provided an update on the program.

Among these updates was information about funding the Moonshot, which was not previously disclosed last year. Now, President Joe Biden said that the White House will allocate $10 million in funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to connect community health centers with National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers for screenings. CancerX will also be established, which will partner private and public funds to support post-treatment care. Finally, Biden explained that there will be a pediatric cancer navigation program which will also include private and public funding.

Mets sportscaster Howie Rose revealed that he received a bladder cancer diagnosis.

Howie Rose, a radio sportscaster for the New York Mets, recently announced that he was diagnosed with bladder cancer during the early days of the MLB’s 2021 season.

Rose said that he dealt with the disease privately throughout the season until September when he was no longer able to work and needed surgery — a radical cystoprostatectomy, to be exact, which is a procedure where the bladder and prostate are removed, and then a new bladder is created with the intestines. Then, when he developed a hernia, he had to undergo another surgery.

“The bottom line, after the pathology came back after the surgery, the doctor basically said, ‘You’re good to go,’” Rose said in an interview with the “New York Post.” “The surgeon, he says, ‘You have no restrictions, do whatever you want.’”

A Peloton instructor announced in an Instagram post that she has breast cancer.

Leanne Hainsby, a 35-year-old fitness instructor on the Peloton app, announced that she received a diagnosis of breast cancer in August 2022. Since then, she underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy while still teaching Peloton classes.

"I would teach my Wednesday morning LIVE classes, and then meet my Mum and go to the treatment suite for my weekly dose. ... Chemo is no joke. Cold caps are no joke," she wrote.

Hainsby explained that her prognosis is good, but still has a long road of treatment and hospital visits ahead of her.

“24” actress died from cancer.

Annie Wersching, the actress who plays FBI agent Renee Walker in “24” and the voice behind Tess in the video game “The Last of Us,” died after receiving a cancer diagnosis in the summer of 2020. She was 45 years old.

A GoFundMe page was set up to help support Wersching’s family: her husband, Stephen Full, and three sons, Freddie, Ozzie and Archie. As of Thursday, it raised over $200,000.

"We just lost a beautiful artist and human being. My heart is shattered. Thoughts are with her loved ones,” Neil Druckmann, the creator of “The Last of Us,” wrote on Twitter.

A family continued their late son’s legacy, creating “Borden Busters” for hospitalized children.

In 2004, 10-year-old Michael McCauley was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which led to multiple long stays in the hospital. To help keep him entertained, a social worker brought him a box of games, a toothbrush and a baseball cap. However, he and his family were told that was the last box, as the program was being discontinued.

So, Michael and his family decided to keep the program going, and a year later, they were packing up boxes — which they called Boredom Busters — to keep families occupied during long hospital stays.

Michael survived his brain tumor and went on to attend Penn State. However, in 2020, he was diagnosed with leukemia and, despite a bone marrow transplant from his sister, died of the disease, but not before asking his mother to continue with Boredom Busters as his legacy.

“It became an official 501(c)(3) the day after he passed away,” said Michael’s mother, Marcie. “It was 15 months from his diagnosis until he passed away on Easter Sunday of 2020.”

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