CHOTEAU, MONTANA MAYOR TESTIFIES BEFORE U-S SENATE COMMITTEE

Below is a transcript of Mayor Chris Hindoien's interview with 560 KMON on his planned testimony before congress this week.  They mayor is a cancer survivor.

Mayor: I am here today, and I'll come home on late Wednesday night for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Leadership Summit and lobbying day activities representing state of Montana as a cancer survive.  

Pat: You're going to testify before a committee? Is it the House or the Senate or a joint committee?  

Mayor: It looks to be that I have an assignment in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday morning at 930. We're here to lobby on behalf of continued cancer funding and continued funding dollars for research. This year's appropriations bill for cancer should be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 billion, and we're looking for them to maintain that. There's some additional funding in there for a Medicaid early detection program that would allow some of our folks with lower incomes to be qualified and tested for cancer on a regular basis in a preventive measure rather than being reactive. And we're hoping that we can change our mind on some of these things. And one of the things that I want to get across to them, Pat, is the cancer that I had is totally preventable with a vaccine. And the federal government has done nothing but mess up the whole idea of vaccines lately. I need them to get some type of message out there that vaccines truly do help. 

Pat:  So what kind of vaccine would it have been, Mayor?  

Mayor: There's a vaccine that's out there made by Gardasil, and it prevents the human papillonavirus. My cancer was HPV positive or peritoneal cancer, and when I was a child, it was not available to us. But now it's out there on, and it's available to up to age 45.  

Pat:  Is there an effort or a thought process in your head that says we need to be doing more about finding cures than just helping patients that are on cancer?   

Mayor: There's a huge thought process in my mind. Cures are the end goal. But then again, cures treatment is what raises money. You know, that if I can put someone on life long treatment, big Pharma has a patient to rest of their lives. Cure is a one time deal, and we're done. So there's no money in cures, and we got to get people to understand that cure is the answer, not continued exposure to radiation, to chemotherapy, things that kill the body. We want to create healthy bodies.  

Pat: Yeah. Mayor, what time do you go before the committee on Tuesday? 

Mayor:  Looks like it's 09:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.  And then later in the day, I have personal meetings with Senator Tester. Senator Daines. There's four of us here from Montana myself as a survivor, and then three from the American Cancer Society.