USA Today Chronicles Armstrong's Role as Ambassador to Cancer Community
Earlier this week USA Today published a long piece about Lance Armstrong and his inspirational role within the cancer survivor community. The article was undoubtedly published to coincide with Armstrong's appointment by President Bush to a special panel on cancer, but it spends more time discussing his role in the community.
Armstrong spends time at nearly every public appearance, including bike races, visiting with cancer victims and survivors. Some of the people whose lives have been touched by cancer treat the opportunity to see or speak with Armstrong as a sort of pilgrimage that might help them overcome the disease.
In the book It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, Lance Armstrong and his co-author Sally Jenkins refer to Armstrong's sense of responsibility to the cancer community, but the book doesn't really relate the magnitude of Armstrong's ongoing commitment in the way this article does. It's possible that the importance of Armstrong to the international cancer community has increased with each Tour de France victory. Certainly, his Lance Armstrong Foundation and the annual Ride for the Roses charity event have garnered increased support in the past few years.
Nevertheless, this USA Today article has a tremendous impact on the reader because cancer survivors other than Armstrong are interviewed about their impressions of Armstrong's importance to people living with cancer.