Lung Cancer in South Carolina...

  • will be diagnosed in approximately 3,900 SC citizens in 2011.
  • will tragically take the lives of approximately 2,910 South Carolinians in 2011, as well.
  • is grossly underfunded, unidentified, and stigmatized.
  • is ravaging and must be cured.
Showing posts with label Advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advocacy. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011 - 10:00am - 12:00pm

Register Online

Folly Beach, South Carolina

Please consider attending the Kites for a Cure™, on Folly Beach, an extraordinary family event in honor of Keisha Kirkland.

Dr. Keisha Kirkland, was diagnosed with Stage 3 Lung Cancer. As a healthy, athletic, non-smoker, we were all shocked at this devastating news. Keisha and her husband, former Clemson and NFL pro-bowl linebacker, Levon Kirkland have partnered with the national non-profit organization Uniting Against Lung Cancer (UALC) and all proceeds from this event will benefit the research programs of UALC.

Kites for a Cure will gather families and friends together to enjoy a beautiful afternoon on the beach, while bringing greater lung cancer awareness to Folly Beach area.

With a $25.00 donation, you will receive a kite you can decorate and a T-shirt. Event will take place in front of Tides Folly Beach

Monday, January 31, 2011

Lung Cancer: The Bold and Beautiful Perspective

Read comments from Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, promoting an upcoming episode of The Bold and the Beautiful airing on February 7th on CBS. The show will shed light on lung cancer and feature several famous surivors. Newmark lost his own father at a young age when he was only 13.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Check out the Upstate Women's Show - Featuring Lung Cancer Survivor, Keish Kirkland of WYFF 4


Keish Kirkland, weather forecaster at NBC's WYFF Channel 4, will share her story - "Living with a Life Altering Diagnosis...Lung Cancer."

See her at the Upstate Women's Show
Friday, August 28th at 11 am on the Entertainment Stage at Greenville's Carolina First Center

Friday, July 3, 2009

LA Daily News reports: Equality and better treatment sought for lung cancer patients

As an emergency physician, Dr. Michael Weitz battles illnesses to save the lives of others.

In his own personal fight with lung cancer, he is battling the stigma that his disease carries.
Weitz, who is one of the 215,000 people diagnosed each year with lung cancer, knows what others think: "You did it to yourself," the Woodland Hills man said.

But Weitz never smoked cigarettes - did nothing he knows of that would infect the delicate tissue of his lungs.

Yet even for those with lung cancer who have never smoked, the condition comes with a negative stereotype. They often are asked, "Did you smoke?"

It's a perception health advocates say needs to be shattered. Why, they ask, should state or federal funding toward the detection and treatment of lung cancer be any different than, say, for illnesses associated with obesity, alcoholism or other kinds of cancer?

"We have to get to the point of saying it doesn't matter," said Kim Norris, a Los Angeles resident who founded the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.

The foundation's goal is to raise enough funds to lead to lung cancer research and treatment. The five-year survival rates for all stages of lung cancer haven't changed in decades, a result of little progress toward finding better treatments, Norris said.

Norris and others note that research for lung cancer treatment remains "under-funded, under-researched and under-reported," because government funders view it as the "the black sheep" of cancers.

"Just because smoking is legal - and the Department of Defense once handed out cigarettes during wars - doesn't mean (those who smoked) deserve (lung cancer)."

Read more.


Friday, June 5, 2009

Looking for volunteers in the Midlands Area to help me organize a Free To Breathe 5K Lung Cancer Awareness Walk...






I'm looking for fellow volunteers/advocates that may be interested in helping me organize a Free To Breathe Lung Cancer 5K Awareness Walk in Columbia. Possibly Saturday, November 14, 2009 at the Riverfront Park in downtown Columbia. (November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month)

Everyday is still a struggle, since losing my mother in 2007. My faith, family, and close friends keep me going. My dream is to one day bring a state chapter of the National Lung Cancer Partnership here to South Carolina, to support survivors and caregivers, as well as, raise money for much needed research.

The National Lung Cancer Partnership is a group of leading doctors, researchers, patient advocates, and lung cancer survivors who are working together to improve treatments for lung cancer patients. They raise research dollars through their Free To Breathe campaign, a 5K fundraising awareness walk.

You can find more information here:



Our neighboring state of North Carolina started the first state chapter in 2006 and have many events planned for this year. I'd love to one day do the same here.

Please consider helping me.

While I Breathe, I Hope...for a CURE for Lung Cancer!

Angie B. Derrick

You can send me a message here, or at scagainstlungcancer@gmail.com


Sunday, May 31, 2009

Lung Cancer Alliance Calls American Cancer Society's Claim of Progress Selective

Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) said that the American Cancer Society's claim of "progress in cancer fight" earlier this week was based on "selective culling of statistics and ignores the dismal truth that we have made very little progress on the most lethal cancers, including lung cancer, which causes one in every two cancer deaths, or in metastatic cancer of any kind."

LCA President & CEO Laurie Fenton Ambrose agreed that progress has been made with certain cancers such as breast, prostate and colon which have widely accepted screening tests for early detection and ACS deserves credit for promulgating information to the public on the importance of these tests.

"But this is not time to be celebrating when half of all cancers still have survival rates of less than 50% and when we are facing a 45% increase in the overall number of new cancer cases by the year 2030," she said, citing a recent report on the upcoming tidal wave in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"There could be no stronger wake-up call," she said. "We can't continue to tout selected changes in incidence and mortality rates over a limited number of cancers over a limited period of time. We have to step back and look at the big picture and try to figure out why we have not done better and where we have to go from here."

Read more.


Dr. West of GRACE says, Hats off to Bonnie J. Addario: Reaching out to Oprah in a BIG Way

Read more.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Time for the "Golf for Conner" fundraiser golf tournament!







Join The Christopher Conner Foundation in making the 2nd Annual Golf for Conner Tournament a success! They are looking teams, sponsors, and silent auction items for the 2nd annual "Golf for Conner" tournament. Any donation would be greatly appreciated. The foundation realizes times are tough, but every little bit counts. Please help them get the word out to as many people as possible.
Please visit the "Golf for Conner" group page on Facebook.
Below is some more information on the tournament, as well as a link to the registration and sponsor forms.
Thanks for your help!
Time for the "Golf for Conner" fundraiser golf tournament!!
The link above will allow you to print the registration form & also the sponsor form. Send them in ASAP!!
What:Golf Tournament fundraiser event in honor of our dear friend Chris Conner.
This event will host an array of musical talent throughout the day into the eveningincluding a Silent Auction. All profits will go towards an Educational Fund for his son Ace Conner & also to support the Christopher Conner Foundation.

Where: The Country Club of Lexington1066 Barr RoadLexington, SC 29072
When:Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Morning & Afternoon Tee Times7:30 am Registration, Shotgun Start at 8:30 am (30 teams)12:00 pm Registration, Shotgun Start at 1:30 pm (30 teams)
Silent Auction:Forms attached
If anyone has contacts they may be able to collect an Auction Item from, it would greatly be appreciated!
Contacts:
Brad Alewine, Shannon Howard Pooser, Molly Palmer Lowder, Brent Caughman, Charles Wilkie
"Golf for Conner"
PO Box 566Lexington, SC 29071
803-214-2226







Thursday, April 23, 2009

Lung Cancer Alliance to Canadian Medical Association Journal Editorial on Lung Cancer Screening


Monday, April 20, 2009: Last week, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial discussing lung cancer screening. In the piece, they misrepresented LCA's position on lung cancer screening. In addition, they came to the conclusion that the best use of funding for lung cancer would be in tobacco control and cessation programs. LCA President & CEO, Laurie Fenton Ambrose, sent in a Letter to the Editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal clarifying LCA's position on lung cancer screening and urging those within the community to address the disease in a comprehensive manner with tobacco cessation programs, early detection and treatment research.


Dear Editor,

The editorial in the April 14, 2009 Canadian Medical Association Journal entitled "A Pause for Thought on Lung Cancer Screening", by M.B. Stanbrook and K. Flegel accuses the Lung Cancer Alliance of having "promoted" CT screening for lung cancer. For the record, our position is that those at high risk for lung cancer (those with greater than 20 pack year smoking history, those with a family history of lung cancer, those with exgtensive exposure to asbestos, radon, Agent Orange and other carcinogens) should speak with their doctors about the risks and benefits of a CT scan.

Please note that we emphasize those at high risk, not population based screening. Even before mammograms and psa testing became widely accepted population based screening tests in the US. (The 5-year survival rates for those cancers are now 88% and 99% respectively and whether or not screening played a role in this increase in survival rates you can debate). The 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is still only 15%.

Lung cancer is far more lethal for the individual patient and in its overall public health impact. Nearly one in every three cancer deaths in the United States is due to lung cancer and only 16% of patients are being diagnosed at an early, most curable stage. Advances in CT scanning now present an alternative to late stage diagnosis for those at hight risk and recent papers coming out of ongoing European trials are further refining the process of CT screening.

Certainly we can look forward to a simple biomarker to further refine the optimal population subset for a CT scan, and we have adocated strongly for reseach funding in these areas. But in the meantime are you suggesting that those at high risk should do nothing? Your conclusion is: "In the meantime, given how much we know about the prevention of lung cancer, targeting smoking avoidance and cessation, rather than detection and management of lung cancer, would seem a better investment."

Sadly this statement ignores the fact that over 50% of lung cancer is being diagnosed in people who have already quit, many of them decades ago. Another 15 to 20% have never smoked. Without considering these individuals,any investment analysis in lung cancer in 2009 and the future is incomplete and suspect.

Sincerely,
Laurie Fenton Ambrose
President & CEO
Lung Cancer Alliance




The New York Times: Voices of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the country, killing more than 160,000 people a year. Yet the disease remains low on the list of cancer funding priorities. In 2006, the National Cancer Institute spent $1,518 for each new case of lung cancer and $1,630 for each lung cancer death. By comparison, the agency spent $13,452 per death on breast cancer, which takes 41,000 lives annually.

Read more.



Monday, April 20, 2009

Breath of Hope: Lung Cancer The Invisible Disease


A new lung cancer documentary has been released and has started airing on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Stations across the country.


“Breath of Hope: Lung Cancer The Invisible Disease” is an hour long documentary that profiles lung cancer survivors from across the country, including LCA-MA advocate Kevin Brumett.


Hosted by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson of Law and Order fame, “Breath of Hope” attempts to eradicate the stigma of lung cancer by sharing the perspectives of survivors and their families as well as information from leading experts in the field.


The documentary, produced by CRW Productions in partnership with CancerCare and with input from LCA, has aired in more than 15 major markets, showing the true face of the disease in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, Orlando, Indianapolis and Knoxville, TN.


For more information about “Breath of Hope”, or to see where and when it will air, please visit the documentary website, http://breathofhope.net/.


South Carolina Cancer Alliance meeting - Friday, April 24th in Columbia


Register TODAY for the next meeting of the SC Cancer Alliance to be held Friday, April 24, 2009 at the Columbia Conference Center located at 169 Laurelhurst Avenue, Columbia, SC. The meeting will begin at 9:30 AM with task force meetings.

We have a great agenda lined up for you for this meeting, including:

“NCI Designation & What it Means for South Carolina” Carolyn E. Reed, MD MUSC Hollings Cancer Center

“Clinical Trials Matching Service” Simbonika Spencer, MPH of the American Cancer Society

“SCCA Legislative Update” Ted Riley, Esq., SCCA Lobbyist, Riley, Pope & Laney, LLC

You won’t want to miss this great meeting. Register online at www.sccanceralliance.org. Please submit any questions to Laura Stuckey at laura.stuckey@sccanceralliance.org


The mission South Carolina Cancer Alliance is to reduce the impact of cancer on ALL people in South Carolina. The SCCA is a 501(c)3 organization. To donate, go to www.sccanceralliance.org.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Lung Tube coming April 23rd


LungTube–Carol Lin Reports

The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation and Carol Lin Reporting are teaming up to bring you the most provocative, compelling and relevant stories about Lung Cancer patients and caregivers—their solutions, stories of survival and what it means to be “One In A Million.”

Stories, reported by award-winning, veteran broadcast journalist and former ABC News and CNN anchor/correspondent Carol Lin, will help the world understand the courage of survivors, the need for early detection and the truth that Lung Cancer is everyone’s challenge. You’ll meet Doreen Schmitt, NEVER-smoker, mother of three, who is outwitting her fatal diagnosis with grit and courage even as her husband is battling colon cancer. Then there’s Gabby, age seven, whose own diagnosis has made her the youngest of heroes as she raises awareness. This is just a taste of what’s to come.

Read more.


Thursday, March 26, 2009

USA Today reports: Lawsuit targets Lake County polluters

Ron Kurth grew up in Gary and worked in the steel mills, and he raised his family in the region near the outskirts of Chicago. And he always wondered about the smoke and smog that overcast the Lake Michigan shoreline.

"It's just a horrible atmosphere ... bringing a family up in this area," he said.

Kurth, who has a 16-year-old daughter who attends high school in Crown Point, decided someone ought to do something about the pollution, and Wednesday, he did.

He filed a lawsuit on behalf of his daughter against 11 northwest Indiana industries, including U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal, claiming the air pollution they emit from their smokestacks endangers the long-term health of Lake County children. The lawsuit seeks class action status on behalf of thousands of the county's schoolchildren.

The complaint cites a study that appeared in USA Today earlier this year that reported children in the heavily industrialized county are exposed to higher levels of airborne toxins than elsewhere in the United States, based on EPA data on air quality outside 127,800 schools nationwide.

Four schools in East Chicago -- Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, East Chicago Lighthouse, and Eugene Field Elementary School -- ranked in the study's first percentile, among the most polluted air.

Read more.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The State reports: Some SC teens call for cigarette tax hike

Dozens of South Carolina teenagers are calling on lawmakers to raise the state's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax.

Members of a youth anti-tobacco group came to Columbia on national Kick Butts Day to urge legislators to hike tobacco taxes and fund smoking prevention programs like theirs. About 6,700 teens statewide ages 13 to 17 participate in Rage Against the Haze.

Read more.


Monday, March 23, 2009

South Carolina Kids 'Kick Butts' on March 25


On Kick Butts Day, kids turn the tables on Big Tobacco with events that range from "They put WHAT in a cigarette?" demonstrations to mock-funerals for the Marlboro Man to rallies at state capitols. Activities in South Carolina include (all events are on March 25 unless otherwise noted):

Youth from the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative in Columbia will encourage state legislators to pass a significant increase to South Carolina's cigarette tax. Time: 11 AM. Location: 1101 Gervais Street, South Carolina State House (Rotunda), Columbia. Contact: Kelly Davis (803) 479-0411.

At Cleveland Park, the Greenville Family Partnership in Greenville will be displaying household products that contain the same dangerous chemicals as cigarettes, such as ammonia and arsenic. Time: 2 PM. Location: 150 Cleveland Park Drive, Greenville. Contact: Alesia McFarlin (864) 467-4099.

Note to the media: For a list of Kick Butts Day events in South Carolina visit www.kickbuttsday.org/events. Additional information about tobacco, including state-by-state statistics, can be found at www.tobaccofreekids.org.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Lung cancer leading cause of cancer death in U.S. women

What's the leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States? The answer might surprise you, because it is lung cancer, not breast cancer. According to the American Lung Association, lung cancer accounts for almost twice as many deaths as breast cancer. And while smokers are more likely to develop the disease, one in every five people with lung cancer has never touched a cigarette.

Blount Memorial thoracic services coordinator Michelle McPherson says there are a couple of key reasons why lung cancer doesn't receive wide media attention. "Lung cancer doesn't have a powerful advocacy group like breast cancer. In addition, lung cancer research is unfunded because the survival rate is typically short, and people who get lung cancer are often times blamed for it being their own fault."


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation Makes $15,000 Donation to Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute

The national, virtual lung cancer institute is dedicated to accelerating the discovery, development, and delivery of new and more efficient treatment options for lung cancer patients.

March 17th, 2009 (Atlanta, GA)

Today, The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation announced their first donation explicitly geared toward lung cancer treatment research. The foundation is donating $15,000 to the newly-created Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI).

ALCMI was established by lung cancer survivor Bonnie J. Addario in 2008. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, it was created to be a national, virtual lung cancer institute – an honest third-party broker that will develop and direct high-quality tissue specimen repositories, data systems, and foster collaboration.

“Our mission statement includes advocating for research,” said foundation president Joe Gaeta. “We believe that ALCMI and its collaboration model will advance the research and treatment of lung cancer and finally begin to increase the survival rate of this horrible disease – a survival rate that has remained virtually unchanged for nearly 40 years. We are extremely confident that ALCMI is the single-best use of our research funds.”

“We are eternally grateful to the Gaeta foundation for their extremely generous donation and, more importantly, for their historic endorsement and partnership with ALCMI,” said ALCMI founder, Bonnie Addario. “Thanks to donations like this, we move one step closer to increasing the survival rate of lung cancer. We are so very happy to have the Gaetas join us in our common fight.”

The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation is grateful for all of their donors who have supported them since their inception in the fall of 2007. “Without the generosity of our supporters, we could not have made this investment in the future of lung cancer research. We thank each and every one of them,” said Joe Gaeta.

About The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute

Concerned by the continued lack of meaningful progress against Lung Cancer, in 2006-2007, the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation assembled the field’s foremost researchers, clinicians, and business leaders from academic and community medical centers, biopharmaceutical companies, and the investment community in order to ask a fundamental question: “If money for research and development was not a barrier, and a true collaboration could be achieved, what would you require to achieve a cure for Lung Cancer in the least amount of time?”

The overwhelming consensus response was to establish a national, virtual Lung Cancer institute—an honest third-party broker that would develop and direct high-quality tissue specimen repositories, data systems, and fostered collaborations. As a result, Lung Cancer survivor Bonnie J. Addario established the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI) in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

ALCMI is dedicated to catalyzing and accelerating the discovery, development and delivery of new and more effective treatment options for Lung Cancer patients.
Contact: Tony Addario, CEO, tony@lungcancerfoundation.org or Sheila Von Driska, Secretary, svondriska@alcmi.net

About The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation

Established in the fall of 2007, The Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation was created to raise awareness, to educate the public, and to be an advocate for research. They also strive to eliminate the stigma of lung cancer and support survivors and their loved ones in our local community.

A life long non-smoker, Joan Gaeta was a devoted wife, teacher, and mother of five. Diagnosed in early 2004, she fought a three and a half year battle before succumbing to the cancer in July of 2007.

Contact: Joe Gaeta, President, (404) 435-7376, gaetafoundation@gmail.com.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Lung Cancer Alliance: Capitol Hill Update

This week, the U.S. Senate finally approved funding for nine agencies of the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2009. The $410 billion package, delayed for over a week by debate over earmarks, boosts funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to $30.3 billion, a $938 million increase over last year’s total. That higher amount included a $186 million increase (for a total of $4.968 billion) for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Over and above this funding is the $700 billion stimulus package, requested by the President and passed by Congress two weeks ago to jump start the economy. Under that funding stream, NIH will receive an additional $10.4 billion for additional biomedical research into diseases such as cancer, heart, Alzeheimers and Parkinsons, renovations to federal and non-federal research facilities and research into the comparative effectiveness of drugs, diagnostics and treatment protocols.

LCA was joined by 14 other lung cancer organizations in writing to the Acting Director of NIH, Dr. Raynard S. Kington, and the Director of NCI, Dr. John E. Niederhuber in urging that $100 million in additional funding be set aside for lung cancer research.

With all that funding going into NIH and NCI, major agencies of the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), filling the now long vacant position of HHS Secretary becomes even more urgent. Last week the President nominated Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to the post but the Senate, which must vote on the nomination, has not yet scheduled hearings.

Meanwhile reports this week indicated that President Barack Obama plans to nominate former New York City health commissioner Margaret Hamburg to head the Food and Drug Administration.

Healthcare reform continues to pick up steam as many members of the House and Senate who as recently as February were predicting it would take 3 to 4 years to complete are now talking about a package of reforms by this fall.

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