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I took care of young adults with cystic fibrosis when I was in my residency training and found this to be a disease that was desperately in need of some explanation.

Personally, I had a close friend with cystic fibrosis. I won't ever forget how he handled himself. In the face of extreme challenges and very harrowing circumstances, he maintained a positive outlook and was just very dignified, even in his suffering.

I believe it is better to be prepared for illness than to wait for a cure.

My natural mother passed away from cystic fibrosis when I was a toddler, so I feel a great deal of empathy for people who are struggling with disease.

We can now diagnose diseases that haven't even manifested in the patient, and may not until the fifth decade of life - if at all.

If we can make the correct diagnosis, the healing can begin. If we can't, both our personal health and our economy are doomed.

Every day we do get closer to a cure. Three out of four children who are diagnosed with cancer will survive the disease, but that is not good enough. The loss of one child to this disease is too much.

A lot of medicines are not there to cure diseases. That's fine - drugs that keep people alive who wouldn't otherwise be alive are useful. What I object to is the drug companies' advertising, which you see everywhere in the U.S., which claims that they are curing diseases when they're not.

You can be diagnosed and treated early. And there is hope for the future.

So many of us have friends or family who have battled cancer, and we know how important it is to find a cure.