Loretta Mealing lost both parents to lung cancer and a sister to breast cancer, which also threatened her life more than 11 years ago.

So when the American Cancer Society's Fight Back Express bus rolled into Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta Wednesday, the Stockbridge resident jumped at the chance to squeeze a

handwritten note among thousands of signatures already scribbled on the bus's side. "I love you, Mudear," it said.

Mealing was among dozens of metro Atlantans who signed their names to the red, white and blue rolling petition which calls for making the fight against cancer a higher national priority.

"It's a horrible disease," said the bubbly cancer survivor. "This bus is fantastic. This cause is fantastic ... Yeah, I'm passionate about it, the research and the advocacy."

The Fight Back Express's stop at Centennial — and later at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge at Emory University — was part of a 48-state tour that began last month in Ohio and ends Nov. 4 near Washington.

In addition to signing the bus, people at each stop can join the cancer society's Cancer Action Network, share their cancer stories electronically and add signatures calling for improved access to quality health care. A written petition will be presented to presidential and other candidates in November.

The Cancer Action Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan partner of the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society, seeks tougher controls on the tobacco industry and more money for cancer prevention, early detection and research. The disease is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and will kill an estimated 565,650 people this year.

The poor, uninsured and underinsured are among those most vulnerable to what John Seffrin, chief executive of the cancer society, called an "unnecessary death sentence" because of limited access to quality health care.

"If we do the right things ... we can eliminate cancer early in this century," Seffrin said.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin described the Fight Back Express as a symbolically easy way for everyone to make a difference.

"That's what it's going to take, all of us fighting together," said Franklin, who announced a Georgia Municipal Association proclamation making June 15-20 annual Fight Back Against Cancer Week and signed the bus.