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Rep. Kelly Honors Erie-Based Kanzius Foundation on House Floor

July 24, 2014

​​​​​​​Rep. Kelly: “John is truly an inspiration, not just to me and to his family, but to the entire country, and especially to the cancer community”

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (PA-03) delivered remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday in tribute to the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation of Erie, Pennsylvania, and its founder, John Kanzius.

Excerpts of Rep. Kelly’s floor speech:

“I rise today to pay tribute to a truly extraordinary and exceptional American, a man by the name of John Kanzius, and to recognize a major milestone in John’s dream to find ‘a better way’ to treat cancer — that’s with the completion of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation’s mission.”

“In Erie, Pennsylvania, a guy named John Kanzius recognized that there had to be a better way to treat cancer. John is truly an inspiration, not just to me and to his family, but to the entire country, and especially to the cancer community.”

“In 2002, John was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and had undergone countless treatments of toxic chemotherapy. “

“And this was the worst kind of luck that put him on a new path, and a miraculous path, because it gave John the idea that maybe you could use radio waves to kill cancer cells. Now, while John didn’t have a medical background, he did understand radio waves, and when he was diagnosed with terminal leukemia in 2002, his knowledge of the deficiency in modern cancer treatment became first-hand.” 

“But, you know what? It wasn’t John’s sickness that motivated him. It was the sad and helpless eyes of all those children he would see in the cancer ward when he went in for his chemo. And he would see these kids sitting there, their heads bandaged up, their frail bodies, knowing that they couldn’t go outside and play the way other children did. And he looked at that and said, ‘There’s got to be a better way to treat this horrible disease.’ And that’s what motivated him.”

“Now, I want you to think about something, because … anybody who’s been through this – my own sister died of pancreatic cancer – as you go through that as a person, whether it happens to you or somebody in your family, you start to feel what they’re going through. Now, John couldn’t sleep at night. And rather than wake Marianne up, you know what he decided to do? One morning at 2 A.M. he got up and he went downstairs. He grabbed some copper wire, some boxes, some antennas, and Marianne’s pie pans, and he starts to build a machine. This is just an average, everyday guy who just got it. He understood that technology.”

“He was weak and weary from his own cancer, but John continued to work. By the spring of 2004, John was feeling a little better and he started to get the word out about his discovery and he started to raise money for more expansive research.”

“Confronted with his own battle and the suffering of so many young people, John Kanzius’ can-do attitude kicked in, and he set out to demonstrate that radio waves indeed could kill cancer cells without harming any other tissue — no collateral damage!  This endeavor became the mission of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation in Erie, Pennsylvania.”

“Last month, on June 30th, the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation announced that the organization would be closing its doors after raising more than $15 million in donations — a day that John Kanzius had only dreamed about. And why?  Because the Kanzius research team are now entering into the next phase by submitting an application to the FDA to initiate human trials to test the possibilities of John’s vision of curing and treating cancer.”

“The Kanzius Foundation has funded all of the research necessary for the team to demonstrate how the technology works and begin the first phases of these trials, which will target pancreatic and liver cancers — two of the particularly deadly forms of cancer.  If successful, the treatment will be a game-changer for so many of these people with these two types of cancer.”

“While John is not around see the culmination of his life’s work – because he passed away in 2009 at the age of 64 – I don’t only trust, I know that John is seeing what’s going on today. And I’m so happy to be here, and be able to talk about the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation. And some of the [Foundation’s] people are in the Gallery, actually: my good friend Mark Neidig, who up there, is the Executive Director; Board President Maryann Yochim; and D.C. Board member Debra Thornton.”

 

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Issues:Health Care