WASHINGTON -- For five years, Ed DeChellis has measured life in six-month increments.

His bladder cancer is in remission, but in three weeks the Penn State men's basketball coach will return to his doctor for his biannual checkup, to see if the disease remains at bay.

With Congress in the midst of a bitter fight over health care reform, DeChellis joined four other major college basketball coaches and scores of advocates from the American Cancer Society on Capitol Hill yesterday to share his tale and lobby for reform. Representing Coaches vs. Cancer, the group met with lawmakers and staff members and held a news conference in a park next to the Capitol, drawing considerable political firepower to the podium with three senators and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

DeChellis, who was joined by Clemson's Oliver Purnell, Notre Dame's Mike Brey, Georgetown's John Thompson III and Minnesota's Tubby Smith, said that in spite of the American Cancer Society's clear support of Democratic plans for health reform, he didn't see his trip to Washington as overtly political.

"I don't know if this is politics," he said. "For me, this is trying to help people. ... My purpose here is to tell people my story and things that affected me."

DeChellis said he met with staffers for Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., in the morning and was scheduled to meet with Reps. Glen Thompson, R-Centre, and Bill Shuster, R-Blair, in the afternoon. Pennsylvania's other senator, Democrat Bob Casey, joined the coaches for the news conference. DeChellis was one of about 20 Pennsylvanians who made the trip to meet with their elected leaders.

DeChellis said he is not advocating for a specific health reform proposal, just for cancer sufferers to get better treatment without such a significant financial burden.

The health reform bills under consideration in Congress would attempt to insure all Americans, while imposing new regulations on insurance companies such as banning lifetime caps on costs and denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions. The pending measures have drawn criticism, most vociferously from conservatives, for being too expensive and for proposing too much government intervention in the system.

Casey, speaking as his colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee marked up its long-awaited proposal, made a sports analogy to push Democrats' position.

"It's time to choose a side, which team are you on?" said Casey, who appeared with Minnesota Democratic colleagues Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.

"Are you on the team that's slowing things down and putting up obstacles or are you going to be on the team pushing forward on health care ?"

For DeChellis, the quest is more personal than political. In addition to his own struggles, the Penn State coach spoke of losing both of his parents to cancer.

He has been involved with advocacy and fundraising with Coaches vs. Cancer for about seven years -- going back to his coaching tenure at East Tennessee State -- and was named the organization's man of the year in 2006.

"I know what disease can do to you, financially as well as emotionally," he said. "That's my charge in Central Pennsylvania -- to help as many families as I can, to try to help them find normal lives in a time that's not so normal."