Nephi resident Iris Tolley will join more than 500 cancer survivors, patients, volunteers and supporters from all 50 states Monday in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for policies that will help prevent and fight cancer.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network is hosting its annual leadership summit and lobby day so Tolley and others can urge elected officials to back ACS CAN's federal initiatives designed to reduce suffering and deaths from cancer.

Tolley is a breast cancer survivor who is currently battling liver cancer. She is one of only six women in the world to have run a marathon on all seven continents and continues to run races even in her late 60s. She has been an active American Cancer Society volunteer participating in Relay For Life, many of their patient services programs and advocating for change at the state and federal government levels.

The selected cancer advocates have been trained on lobbying elected officials, speaking with the media and engaging in grassroots activities in their districts. The legislative ambassadors will urge their members of Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration the broad authority to regulate the sale, advertising, manufacture and distribution of tobacco products, and boost the federal tobacco tax to discourage tobacco use and fund an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Advocates will push Congress to increase federal investment in medical research at the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute at a pace that at least keeps up with medical inflation. They also want full funding for the CDC's breast and cervical cancer early detection programs and creation of a similar program for colorectal cancer, among other things.

For more information, visit www.acscan.org.