Fran Drescher Survived Cancer, Then Launched a Movement to Help Prevent It

In the late 1990s, actress Fran Drescher began a frightening health odyssey, looking for a cause of her gynecologic symptoms that no one seemed able to explain. Over two years she met with eight doctors, none of whom made an accurate diagnosis. Finally, in 2000, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, a gynecologic disease that usually impacts women after menopause.

At the time, Drescher was the star of the popular network sitcom, The Nanny. She was also just 44, younger than the typical age range for the disease. Her cancer was Stage 1 when it was found and, after undergoing a hysterectomy, she’s been cancer-free ever since.

Yet for Drescher, that diagnosis wasn’t an end, it was a beginning. In 2002, she published the book Cancer Schmancer, which detailed her journey through the labyrinthine medical system. As she toured with the book, she began to hear the stories of countless other besieged and terrified women whose experiences mirrored her own. Drescher knew she had to do something about it. In 2007, she launched the nonprofit Cancer Schmancer Movement (CSM), whose mission is straightforward and determined: fight cancer through early detection, prevention, and policy change.

“Let’s not get sick in the first place. How’s that for a cure?” says Drescher. 

What Drescher learned and what CSM operates knowing is that the U.S. healthcare system is a reactive one. CSM’s focus is turning it into a proactive one. Part of CSM’s mission is to help people become informed medical consumers and better partners with their physicians. Early detection relies on awareness and knowledge and CSM educates people about this via its powerful social channels and programs. 

CSM also runs mobile cancer screening clinics in New York and offers matching funds to support a variety of organizations that operate lifesaving mobile screenings, bringing early detection opportunities directly to underprivileged and underinsured women and families.

The Cancer Schmancer Movement also advocates a forward-thinking, holistic, whole-body approach to wellness. Their many initiatives such as the Detox Your Home program guide young people and adults on how to identify and eliminate the causes of cancer and other diseases in their daily routines as a “preventative” lifestyle. 

Their annual one-day Master Class Health & Wellness Summit “curates the most innovative and cutting-edge doctors from all fields of medicine to speak and share their latest findings and educate attendees,” says Drescher. “We also release it as an Edu-Series on our website for those who missed it the first time. People say attending our annual master class has changed their lives!”

 “There are a lot of ways to keep yourself in optimum health, and no one’s really teaching you how to do that,” says Susan Holland, executive director of CSM. “That’s where we come in. We’ve built educational curricula about prevention in a very deep way.”

Drescher is also a frequent visitor to Washington, D.C., where she has lobbied for a bill that would ban carcinogens in household products. She was instrumental in helping pass the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act of 2005, which authorized the Secretary of Health and Human Services to initiate a national campaign to boost women’s awareness and knowledge of gynecological cancers.

 “We are changing Americans from chronic sick-care to thriving health-care the Cancer Schmancer way! Please lock elbows with me and join the Cancer Schmancer Movement so together we can do what needs to be done, so fewer of us will die prematurely,” says Drescher.