How We Really Help Ted

Jordan liked to point to a study by Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford, ridiculed at first but now replicated, that showed 18 months of additional survival for women with breast cancer who developed strong support networks. That didn't mean they were upbeat all the time, but they lived longer by developing a spirit of resistance.

Cancer is a disease with not enough hope and not enough money. Ten days before he was diagnosed, Kennedy chaired a Senate hearing featuring Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards. (Had he been well enough, Jordan would likely have joined them.) Afterward, the senator got choked up recalling his son Ted's bout with bone cancer when he was 12, and his daughter Kara surviving lung cancer. Kennedy worked on funding the first "war on cancer" in 1971 and believes it's now time to rearm and fight with smarter weapons. When I asked him recently why the costs of effective lymphoma treatments called Bexxar and Zevelin weren't being reimbursed by the government, he helped fix the problem fast.

We'll soon find out if the senators who were choked up last week at the prospect of losing their beloved colleague will be ready to get serious about cancer. Think we're already spending enough? Jordan sent me an e-mail toting up how we spend more in six months in Iraq ($54 billion) than we've spent in 30 years on the National Cancer Institute, which funds most cancer research. Today, only two in 10 grant proposals from qualified researchers are funded by the NCI, which means that plenty of possible cures die for lack of funding.

Jordan was always plotting ways to advance the cause. Last summer, after I visited him (and his portable oxygen canister) at his home in Atlanta, he suggested I ask each of the presidential candidates if they would commit to doubling cancer-research funding over the next 10 years. At a cancer forum in Iowa sponsored by Armstrong's Livestrong group (skipped by John McCain and Barack Obama, who are expected to show up for another Armstrong cancer forum this year), the Republicans declined to commit, but all the Democrats in the race did.

Last Christmas, Jordan posted a message for family and friends. His suffering had been immense. "Some idiot once wrote a book titled, 'No Such Thing as a Bad Day.' While that appeals to my optimistic nature, I want you to know that I have had a couple of lousy years." But then Hamilton couldn't help himself. A few paragraphs later, he wrote: "I take it back. There really is no such thing as a bad day. We never know when the Good Lord is finished with us, but I am not through yet." And neither is Ted Kennedy, still sailing through the storm.

© 2008