| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2009 
President Felipe Calderón Receives Cycling Champion Lance Armstrong
 Presidencia de la República
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| | Cyclist Lance Armstrong (L) talks with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon during a visit at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City February 28, 2009. (Reuters/Daniel Aguilar) | |
Mexico D.F. - During the visit by Lance Armstrong, the cyclist who overcame cancer and has won the Tour de France seven times, President Felipe Calderón said that his government has tripled the budget for the Social Security Program in three years, adding that by 2011, Mexico will achieve universal health coverage, whereby all Mexicans will have doctors, medicine and treatment.
He said that the Popular Insurance Scheme will automatically insure all children and young people with cancer, until the age of 18, to ensure that they have a doctor, treatment and medicine.
“I now see the light of hope in many Mexican parents and children who, as Lance says, struggle and survive. The support from this program produces a change I think should become generalized and I hope we will all be able to follow Lance's leadership in the struggle against cancer worldwide," said President Felipe Calderón.
In this respect, the President added: “I am sure that we will succeed in this struggle in which we are all engaged to enable people to live better, and help them overcome a disease that was considered fatal until recently.
At the same time, the President said Lance Armstrong's visit to Mexico will re-launch the Mexico Cyclist Route, which will begin tomorrow and go through Oaxaca, Morelos, Puebla, Hidalgo and Guanajuato, ending in Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.
He said that Lance Armstrong's presence in Mexico is crucial to promoting sport, which Mexico so needs to prevent diseases such as diabetes, heart attacks and cardiovascular problems.
President Calderón declared that being a good cyclist like Lance Armstrong requires having good legs and good physical condition. “But even more important than that is having a strong, robust mind to enable you to pedal for hours and climb steep mountains and above all, not to give up or accept defeat." |
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