Miss America Begins Her Reign and Her Campaign to Raise Cancer Awareness
This year's Miss America, Deirdre Downs, has a very special mission. An aspiring pediatrician, she selected childhood cancer research and funding as her platform while serving as Miss Alabama. As Miss America, she continues her advocacy, taking her platform to the national stage. Throughout 2005 she will travel coast to coast on her national speaking tour, focusing her message on the need for childhood cancer research and funding to find a cure.
Since 1989, Miss America has selected an issue about which she cares deeply and that is of relevance to society. During her year of service, she uses her stature as Miss America to address community service organizations, business and civic leaders, the media, and others about her platform.
"The title of Miss America provides a unique opportunity for me to be a national voice for this issue. I travel approximately 20,000 miles per month on a nationwide speaking tour, the focus of which is my platform, raising awareness of pediatric cancer and of the need for research funding for this disease, notes Downs. "I am also the official national spokesperson for CureSearch, the organization representing over 200 pediatric cancer treatment centers across North America. With the visibility afforded me by the Miss America title, I hope to educate people about childhood cancer and the needs of families and children facing a cancer diagnosis."
Downs became interested in becoming an advocate for childhood cancer when she visited Camp Smile-A-Mile, a summer camp for children with cancer in her home state of Alabama. "These kids face more adversity than most adults ever have to face, and they do it with such resilience and spirit. I was hooked from that first day. I returned the following summer as a counselor and began volunteering at Children's Hospital in Birmingham, in the oncology unit and the bone marrow transplant unit," she notes. Her experiences at Camp Smile-A-Mile coupled with her work at the hospital not only strengthened her desire to become a doctor, but also to specialize in pediatrics. 
Spurred by her volunteer efforts, Downs decided to do even more…to increase cancer awareness, especially in young people, and to provide a means where they could work directly with children diagnosed with the disease. She created the Making Miracles Program at Children's Hospital in Birmingham as a means for high school students to volunteer to work one-on-one with pediatric cancer patients. Students from four Birmingham-area high schools volunteer one night a week at the hospital, reading, playing games, and providing other activities for the children in the oncology unit.
The more Downs learned about cancer, the more she realized that research funding is key to making strides in prevention, detection, and treatment. This led to her next effort, one that would establish a permanent funding source for research. Her creativity and innovation paid off in the form of Alabama's Curing Childhood Cancer license plate program. Downs both designed the plate and worked diligently with the health care community, state legislature, and the media to bring the program to fruition. In its initial pre-purchase period, the tag raised nearly $85,000 for pediatric cancer research at Children's Hospital in Birmingham, which treats over 95% of children with cancer in Alabama. "In order to obtain legislative approval, we had to pre-sell 1,000 license plates; we exceeded that requirement, selling over 2,000 tags. The license plate project is particularly exciting because it establishes a permanent source of funding for pediatric cancer research in Alabama. For each $50 tag sold, $41.25 goes directly to research," Downs explains.
Downs will begin medical studies at the University of Alabama School of Medicine next year. She was a Rhodes Scholar Finalist and an Echols Scholar at University of Virginia, from which she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in history. Looking towards the future, Downs says "I envision a career of clinical practice, advocacy, and community involvement. Although my professional goal is to be a practicing pediatrician after I complete my residency, I plan to continue working for children with cancer as an advocate with groups like CureSearch and Camp Smile-A-Mile, as well as continuing to promote the license plate in Alabama. When I created the license plate and saw firsthand the effects of grassroots support for this initiative, I realized the impact we can have by doing our part to address whatever social issues we identify as most critical in the community. I hope to do that specifically in the area of children's health care in Alabama."
She concludes, "Detecting cancer early is obviously as critical in pediatric cancer as in adult cancer. Prevention is certainly a critical healthcare issue, in terms of lifelong health, that I will encounter in my career as a pediatrician. It's absolutely essential that parents teach their children healthy lifestyles; we know that smoking, lack of exercise, and poor nutritional choices all play a role in a number of diseases but particularly cancer. We must do a better job of teaching healthier habits to our kids. My title as Miss America will open doors, my experience will help establish programs, and I trust that my passion will inspire others to join me in my quest to find new research tools for medical and academic communities, which will ultimately lead to more cancer-free children the generations to come."
