National Cancer Institute Address - Feb. 4, 2021

Thank you Dr. Sharpless, and your remarks are so heartwarming to me so thank you. And Ned, you know we're so grateful – to have an accomplished researcher, academic, inventor, physician, and author at the head of our nation's premier cancer research institution, so thank you for your leadership. And Dr. Collins thank you for joining us today as well, and for your years of service at NIH in three administrations now. So on behalf of both the president and me, I also want to thank you and the NIH for helping to create the vaccines and the treatments that are going to save so many lives and help our nation recover. And we're just so lucky to have you

So it's a pleasure to visit the National Cancer Institute virtually today, and I’m grateful to be coming to you from the White House today as your first lady. You know, it's the honor of a lifetime but I know that even more than that, it's a responsibility to serve the American people. And from coast to coast, we face so many diverse and complicated challenges, and yet when I was second lady, and in my travels across the country over the last few years, I’ve seen again and again that there is one challenge that unites us all. One thread of pain that runs through every community – north and south; rich and poor; in the best of times; the depths of this pandemic – and that's cancer.

The first time I heard the diagnosis for someone I loved, I was in my early forties. And the year it happened not one, but actually four of my friends found out that they had breast cancer. And cancer took the life of both my parents. My sister had to have an auto stem cell transplant. And then there was our son Beau, as you referred to. You know cancer touches us all. And because of that, your work touches us all. And you've brought the cancer moonshot to where it is today – you've dedicated years to studying our immune systems and supporting clinical trials; you've lifted up community-based clinics and treatment research; you've led breakthroughs and discovered new ways to test.

And though this last year has been so difficult, NCI has risen to meet the challenge; uncovering how this pandemic has affected rates and figuring out how to continue this work, your work – because cancer doesn't stop for COVID. For more than 50 years, this organization, your organization, has pioneered this frontier. Thanks to you countless lives have been saved countless; families are whole; and there is more hope than ever for every person who is touched by this disease. So, on behalf of the president and me, thank you. On behalf of every family who has faced cancer, and a very grateful nation, thank you. We are so proud of everything that you're doing here. And now I’m more excited to learn, you know, about the work that you're doing so let me pass it back to Ned.

Biden, J. [Forbes Breaking News]. (2021, February 4). Jill Biden pays emotional, moving virtual visit to National Cancer Institute [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljrwm6ju1Cw]. Retrieved on April 11, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg40OxZ1GYh3u3jBntB6DLg.