Warwick resident Ethel Ricci has experienced unthinkable loss in her life because of cancer. Her father, brother, brother-in-law and niece all passed away throughout the years because of the disease that will affect one in every two men and one in every three women throughout an average lifetime.

After losing her sister in 2015, with whom she was very close, Ethel channeled her silent sorrow into a fire of activism.

“I got angry. I think that’s the thing,” she said. “I felt so angry and I’m like, okay I’m sick of just sitting back and watching this. I need to do something. So, this is where it led me.”

As of the time this issue is published, Ricci will be in Washington D.C. with her husband, Joe, and fellow volunteers and staff of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACSCAN), lobbying Congress to increase funding to the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute and to remove certain financial barriers from people who need cancer screening, diagnoses and treatment.

“There could be a cure on the shelf somewhere, and there’s not enough money for research,” Ricci said, who also attended the lobbying summit in D.C. last year. “There has to be more progress.”

Ricci and volunteer delegates from all over the country will also be rallying in the nation’s capital in support of the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, which would require the federal Department of Health and Human Services to provide support for Palliative Care and Hospice Education Centers.

The bill would support increased research into end of life care for terminally ill patients as well as set up centers to provide training to doctors and medical staff on the benefits of palliative care. The bill has passed the House of Representatives but has yet to pass the Senate.

“Here in Rhode Island we have palliative care, but a lot of doctors and healthcare workers aren’t aware of how it works,” Ricci explained. “The component we’re looking for in that bill is the education and training, so that they know enough to offer it to patients. It can make a world of difference in their life. Not just people with cancer, but any chronic illness that needs support in the home.”

Additionally, ACSCAN advocates are lobbying to remove barriers to treating colorectal cancers. As of now, patients on Medicare can have rectal screenings covered by insurance, however any diagnostic test of polyps found during the screening can cost as much as $300 per polyp and isn’t covered.

“Some patients are not getting the colonoscopies because they’re afraid of the cost,” Ricci said.

Funding is another crucial component of the summit, as both the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute have had their purchasing power decrease by 18 and 21 percent respectively since 2003 when accounting for inflation. Summit participants have a goal of increasing the NIH budget by $2 billion to bring it to $34.5 billion. This money would go towards increasing opportunities for research to develop early detection tools, treatments, education on prevention and quality of care.

ACSCAN reports in their leaflet that 80 percent of NIH’s budget provides 50,000 extramural grants to 300,000 researchers at 2,500 universities, medical schools and research institutions, which created about 380,000 and $65 billion in new economic activity in the forms of goods and services in fiscal year 2016.

In addition to lobbying the state’s federal delegation from their Washington offices, Ricci will join people with similar stories of loss from around the country to illuminate the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial with 25,000 Lights of Hope, which are paper bags lit up with tealight candles to honor the memory of individuals who have succumbed to cancer.

Ricci, herself, has collected over 60 bags from friends and family to bring to Washington with her. The bags will be placed around the entirety of the pool, usually requiring a second circle to accommodate the sheer number of bags. Last year, Ricci found the bags she brought and broadcast them illuminated on Facebook Live to let loved ones see their homages shining brightly.

“They’re already asking me, ‘What time are you going to be on [Facebook Live]?!’” Ricci said.

Ricci, now retired, spent many years substituting in the Warwick Public School system – including stints at Warwick Vets, Toll Gate and the Career and Technical Center. She said that she never expected to be in the position to be advocating for cancer victims and survivors in front of federal government officials, but that she thinks her parents would be proud of her for doing so. The memory of her sister remains her most important influence.

“I do it for her,” she said. “I’m not a very outgoing person, but I think of her all the time in everything I do, and that gives me the strength. No one deserves to have this disease, and no one deserves to die of it.”

While progress in treating cancer has come a long way – two out of three patients live five years longer after their initial diagnosis, compared to just one out of two 40 years ago, according to ACSCAN – Ricci understands more than most how suddenly cancer can strike, and how mercilessly and arbitrarily it decides to take its victims. The disease unites its sufferers and survivors, as well as their families, and so should it unite everyone in the fight against it.

“Everyone we’ve talked to – every senator and congressman – cancer has touched them in some way,” she said. “This can touch your life, or already has. If not you, someone you love dearly. One day or another, it just changes your life.”