By Lynne Eldridge MD Originally published October 31st, 2011 on About.com Lung cancer needs to be noticed. And I can't think of a more roaring way than lighting up Niagara Falls. Sound like a fantasy? It would have been for me. But my friend Christine Dwyer didn't let words like "impossible" stop her. On Wednesday November 16th, Niagara Falls will be illuminated with white lights in honor of Lung Cancer Awareness Month. This amazing event will take place from 8 to 8:15 pm and 9 to 9:15 pm EST. Check out the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=285873131436318 If you don't happen to live near the falls, you can still take part in the action. Via live webcam you'll have the opportunity to participate in the festivities from the comfort of your own home. Here are 3 links for the live feed: American Falls Live Webcam Niagara Falls Webcam Falls View Cam In person, you can witness the event either from Niagara Falls State Park, NY, or from Niagara Falls Park, Ontario, Canada. Eldridge: So how did this come about? Dwyer: In the wake of Steve Job's death, I love stories about how one person with a hope and a vision can make a difference in the world. Christine did just that. Having read an article that spoke of Niagara Falls being illuminated in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month she turned -- not pink -- but green. Green being the envy she felt that efforts to raise awareness for lung cancer have lagged behind those for breast cancer. Yet instead of getting upset, she followed the advice she had given to others in the past. "If you don't like something, do something to change it!" So she sat down and wrote an email. She knew it was a long shot but thought "hey," she had been turned down and told NO on more than one occasion. What did she have to lose? Later her cell phone rang. The voice on the other end told her that he was calling regarding her email and wanted to know what day in November she would like to have NIAGARA FALLS ILLUMINATED IN WHITE FOR LUNG CANCER AWARENESS! Her reaction? She is bursting in excitement and pride and a sense of thankfulness that is indescribable... You see, like so many of us, Christine's life has been touched by lung cancer. To quote her, "once you are touched in any way by lung cancer, you truly realize how wide spread and non-discriminating it is." Christine lost her step grandfather to lung cancer when she was just 17. She lost a friend when he was 31 (a never smoker) just 3 months after his diagnosis. More recently she lost her step dad as well as her best friend Patti from the same disease. She knew she had to do something, and that's how Make Some Noise for Lung Cancer Awareness came to be. My reaction? A deep sense of gratitude for Christine's efforts, and a new sense of empowerment as we all work to raise awareness and funding for the number one cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the world.
0 Comments
10/28/2011 Lung Cancer Alliance Salutes National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for Its Lung Cancer Screening GuidelinesRead NowWASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Today Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) hailed the leadership of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for being the first professional society to recommend low-dose CT screening for high risk individuals and to develop comprehensive clinical practice guidelines on lung cancer screening. NCCN is a consortia of 21 of the world's leading cancer centers dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. Released October 26, 2011, the NCCN guidelines stem from the landmark November 2010 decision by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to halt its eight-year National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) because the study found that screening people at high risk for lung cancer with low-dose (LDCT) scans reduced lung cancer mortality by 20%. In the absence of screening, lung cancer is generally found after it has spread beyond the lung and existing treatments are rarely curative. Lung cancer alone accounts for close to one in three cancers deaths and is the leading cause of cancer death across the world. "We appreciate NCCN's recognition of the urgency of the situation and working to allow the life-saving potential of CT screening to move swiftly and thoughtfully to clinical implementation." said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, LCA President & CEO. As the leading national voice for patients and those at risk for lung cancer and as a consistent advocate for early detection and increased research funding for the disease, LCA will continue to work with respected professional societies to ensure the benefit of CT screening is available to those at risk in a safe, efficient and equitable way." The NCCN guidelines provide important clinical information on risk factors for lung cancer, criteria for selecting high-risk individuals for screening, recommendations for evaluation and follow-up of nodules found during screening, accuracy of low-dose CT screening protocols and imaging modalities, and the benefits and risk of screening. Fenton-Ambrose concluded, "This data from NCCN will serve as an important communications tool for physicians to discuss the risks as well as the recently documented significant benefits of this promising new lung cancer management approach." These recommendations and additional evolving information about lung cancer screening can be viewed at www.lungcanceralliance.org. Lung Cancer Alliance is a national non-profit dedicated to providing support and advocacy for those living with or at risk for lung cancer. LCA is committed to reversing decades of stigma and neglect by empowering those with or at risk for lung cancer, elevating awareness and changing health policy at both the federal and state level. Follow Lung Cancer Alliance on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lungcanceralliance.
Media Contact: Kay Cofrancesco kay@lungcanceralliance.org 202-742-1422 SOURCE: Lung Cancer Alliance RELATED LINKS http://www.lungcanceralliance.org If you shop there by clicking on their logo below and elseware on our site, RockScar Love will donate 10% of the proceeds to The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Fund! Rock Scar Love is a modern, trend setting clothing company focused on helping individuals with physical, mental and emotional scars to embrace the lessons they represent We believe that scars are sexy and when embraced they can only change lives for the positive. We look to provide sexy scar owners a way to tell their story and inspire others to live passionate lives. Their corporate slogan of “You choose” is the heart of human existence... do our lives define us or do we define our lives? Each human is given struggles in life. Our experiences are our loads to bear…our defining moments. Do they define us or do we define them? We can all choose to either use our experiences to empower us and make us amazing individuals, or to use them as an excuse for why we can’t do something. Everyone has the capability to choose to live every day, every hour and every moment with passion; to change the aspects of their lives that make them unhappy. RockScar Love Designs challenges fans to take their life struggles and use them as a stepping stone to greatness. Tshirt, women’s tanks, burnout tees or accessories...they have a way for you to rock your scar with love! Thanks, RockScar Love! Keep up the great work!
Cal’s Costello Made Each Day Her Best By Kristen Leigh Porter Originally published 10/26/2011 on NCAA.org. Jill Costello’s personal journal outlined six rules to live by: Love, Live, Be Grateful, Visualize, Laugh, Believe. "Inspire" could have been added to the list. It describes Costello’s effect on others after her diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer following a promising junior season for the University of California, Berkeley, rowing team. Costello earned a seat as the coxswain for the varsity eight, walked across the stage to receive her college diploma and helped raise money and awareness for the deadliest of cancers. She died June 24, 2010, at age 22, less than a month after the Golden Bears finished second at the NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Championship. Costello, one of two winners of the NCAA Inspiration Award, will be recognized in January during the Honors Celebration at the 2012 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis. World War II veteran and former Southern California runner Louis Zamperini is the other honoree. “Jill was a great inspiration to me and many people because she taught us a simple lesson: you have your best life by making each day your best day, by living it fully and completely and finding the joy in each 24 hours,” her mother Mary Costello said. The Inspiration award is presented to a current coach or administrator or to a current or former varsity student-athlete who, when confronted with a life-altering situation, used perseverance, dedication and determination to overcome the event and now serves as a role model to give hope and inspiration to others. Herb Benenson, assistant athletic director for athletic communications at Cal, nominated Jill, the 2010 Pac-10 Athlete of the Year, for the award. The life of the 5-4, 110-pound dynamo was the subject of a number of regional and national attention. ESPN aired an in-depth feature on Jill’s life this past summer and Sports Illustrated published a piece on her last fall. Her life also was highlighted in NCAA Champion magazine. “Though forced to deal head on with one of the most difficult challenges anyone could ever have to face, Jill found a way to inspire thousands of people across the world with her courage, grace and dignity,” Benenson said. “Not only did her approach to her diagnosis help motivate her teammates, but her story touched – and continues to touch – members of the entire rowing community and beyond.” Jill’s words to live by are forever etched in the memory of her boyfriend Bryce Atkinson, a former member of the Cal men’s crew team. That final year, they put the cancer aside and lived life like two college kids in love. “We didn’t worry about cancer and chemo…That inspired me, now that she’s gone, on how I need to live my life,” Atkinson, 23, said. That also means carrying on Jill’s mission to beat lung cancer – big time. Atkinson serves as director of marketing for the Jill’s Legacy Advisory Board, affiliated with the California-based Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation that Jill became involved with following her diagnosis. When Jill’s Legacy was officially launched in March 2011, BJALCF namesake Bonnie Addario said she was “inspired and extremely hopeful about the message that these incredible young people can send to the world about lung cancer.” This year alone, $293,000 has been raised through grants and Jog for Jill events, which will fund hand-picked young lung cancer researchers and lung cancer awareness campaigns. The first out-of-state Jog for Jill event was held September 25 on the Cornell University campus where more than 600 participants raised more than $45,000. Another Jog for Jill is scheduled for Nov. 13 on the Tulsa campus. Sorority sister and close friend Darby Anderson, a former Cal water polo student-athlete who became a full-time employee of BJALCF in January, said Jill was passionate about changing the stigma of lung cancer and finding a cure for the disease.
Lung cancer is still the number one cancer killer with a 15.5 percent survival rate, Anderson said. People still associate it with smoking, despite the fact that now up to 80 percent of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients never smoked or stopped smoking decades before their diagnosis. “College students especially can really relate to her story because she was so young and very much a ‘normal’ college girl before she was diagnosed,” the 23-year-old Anderson said, noting support from the rowing teams at Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Loyola Marymount. “This is why we have seen so much success at the college level with raising money and awareness for lung cancer.” The Cal women’s crew team, which took third at the 2011 NCAA championships, celebrated Jill this past season rather than mourning her. The dual with rival Stanford has been renamed “The Jill Row” and the team wears teal and navy tank tops with Jill’s profile on the back instead of the Cal bear for the competition. At the Pac-10 Women’s Challenge in March, Beat Lung Cancer was unveiled as the new varsity eight boat. “Jill would be honored to receive this award, and I know her family is touched by the recognition,” coach Dave O’Neill said of the NCAA Inspiration Award. “Her strength and resolve was limitless, especially during the most difficult moments. Whether it was racing a tough Stanford crew or battling lung cancer, Jill always gave everything she had.” Jill will receive the Service Award from the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame next month and introduced with the Hall of Fame class at the home football game vs. Oregon State. Jill's Legacy also will be holding a fundraiser that weekend. For more information, visit JillsLegacy.org. Friends of the cause and Co-Executive Directors of Lung Cancer Alliance - Georgia Chapter, Ed and Linda Levitt, recently spoke on the Martha Zoller Radio Show. Please listen to this very informative and eye-opening interview. Also, please join us as we support Ed and Linda's "No More Excuses" Lung Cancer 5K on November 5th! Nancy Grace Confirmed to Emcee the 5th Annual Dancing for Joan!
TV Host and "Dancing with the Stars" participant Nancy Grace will be back to emcee our 5th Annual Dancing for Joan fund raiser on Saturday, February 25th, 2012. This will be Nancy's fourth straight year as our emcee. If you are a lung cancer advocate, why not say "Thank You" by voting for her tonight on Dancing with the Stars? Stay up-to-date on all the latest news fromThe Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Fund by joining our mailing list today! Click here: http://www.gaetafund.org/subscribe.html
On Saturday, February 25th, 2012, we will gather at the Pavilion East Cobb in Marietta, Georgia for the 5th Annual Dancing for Joan Dinner and Gala. This festive evening of cocktails, dinner, great music and dancing, silent auction, and a “call to action” in the fight against lung cancer is an event not to be missed. The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Fund was created in the fall of 2007 by her husband and children to raise awareness of the disease, to educate the public and to be an advocate for research. We also strive to eliminate the stigma of lung cancer and to support survivors and their loved ones in our local community. Our ultimate goal: to eradicate lung cancer. To that end, we became an affiliate of The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation in 2010 - specifically dedicated to raising money their research arm,The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALMCI). Please visit us at www.forjoan.org for detailed information on this partnership or visit www.alcmi.netto see how this research is going to change the paradigm for lung cancer research.
There is so much to celebrate this year and yet so much to do. We would be honored to have you join us in our work as a sponsor of Dancing for Joan. Please review our 2011 sponsorship opportunities here. Thank you for your consideration – we want to effect this change in the memory of all those who have lost their battle with lung cancer as Joan Gaeta did...and also to honor all those currently fighting lung cancer and those yet to be diagnosed. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me directly at (404) 435-7376, or send an e-mail to gaetafund@gmail.com. |
Details
|