The SU2C Blog
Posted by developer on June 6, 2008 5:51 PM
This will be the place to come for news and notes, share-worthy links, the latest updates on standup2cancer.org, and discussion about them.
While there's lots of business to tend to on the blog today, first and foremost we want to say a heartfelt "thank you."
The response to the launch of SU2C has been better than any of us could have hoped. It is amazing how many of you have already signed on, opened your hearts, and shared your stories. We want to give you a place to keep sharing and questioning. Later this month SU2C will launch a forum where users can come to find community and start a discussion on any cancer related issue.
New content will roll out in the magazine and at SUTV throughout the summer, so please check back frequently. In the meantime This Is SU2C is a great place to learn all that you need to know about what drives this initiative.
Ultimately, the success of Stand Up To Cancer will depend not on the Stand Up To Cancer team, or the website, or the television special. It will depend on participation. Everyone has a stake. So thank you again for investing and engaging in the cause of ending cancer as we know it.
The SU2C.org Team
info@standup2cancer.org
Inclusion
Posted on June 9, 2008 1:20 PM
Stand Up To Cancer seeks progress against all forms of cancer. SU2C aims to fund life saving cancer research. No one is excluded. From pediatric cancers to prostate cancer, research areas across cancer types, organ sites and oncology disciplines will be under the consideration of Stand Up To Cancer's Scientific Advisory Committee. Please see our funding model (Where The Money Goes and Why, in the This Is SU2C section of the magazine) for more information.
As fundraising has just kicked off, SU2C has not yet decided on which projects to fund. Users will be among the first to know when that does happen.
In regard to the creative content, standup2cancer.org will be updated regularly with new articles and videos, and sometimes announcements of new friends of this movement and new features on the site. What you see now is the very first installment.
You can see in the Resources page that we are intent on standing with the entire cancer community, and the numerous advocacy and support groups who continue to do such amazing work in the fight against cancer. While the page shows an extensive and eclectic coalition, it is not exhaustive and continues to grow.
We are seeking out new groups to link with and are receptive to groups who seek us out. If you are part of or know of an organization that is not represented on this site and you believe should be here, please let us know via e-mail at resources@standup2cancer.org.
If Stand Up To Cancer is where the end of cancer begins, please know that what you see on this website is only the beginning of what we believe will be a fulfilling journey. Inclusion and transparency are two guiding principles of this journey. With your help we'll achieve both.
Weekly Links
Posted on June 19, 2008 4:12 PM
It's not your imagination -- cancer is always in the news these days, and not just because we're having a nationally televised primetime fundraiser (September 5, on ABC, CBS and NBC, commercial-free. Just a reminder...).
Cancer affects everyone, and events around us are constantly driving this point home. It's not just science news hitting the papers, TV and internet; every day brings a fresh round of inspiring stories about people all across the country battling cancer.
Overcoming cancer in any way is incredible enough; what's even more astonishing is what so many survivors have gone on to do. We've been looking around and thought we'd share some stories.
This week's highlights:
We particularly enjoyed reading the story of a Chicago chef who won the "Academy Awards" of the restaurant business - after losing his sense of taste to stage IV lung cancer:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0610edit1jun10,0,3927525.story
Most people would find participating in a 178-mile relay daunting under even the best of circumstances. But last week, one Salt Lake City man ran all three of his legs of the relay after having a foot of his colon removed just six weeks before:
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_9627060
Elsewhere, The Economist says that claims of a healthy lifestyle decreasing the odds of getting cancer aren't just "soft" science.:
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11579121
Science Daily reports that obese patients who undergo bariatric surgery have more to celebrate than simply shedding 70% of their excess weight - they've also decreased their cancer risk by up to 80% in one fell swoop:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080619113705.htm
The folks up north are making moves. The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer just launched a landmark study during which they'll track 300,000 randomly selected Canadians for thirty years, monitoring their health and lifestyle to better determine the causes of cancer:
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/health/story.html?id=85d5ab15-f63c-45d0-a115-8085faa77055
Stateside, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter recently sounded a clarion call for Capitol Hill to respond to the brain cancer diagnosis of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy by approving additional funding for cancer research.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/138510
Meanwhile, promising new treatments are constantly emerging. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas recently tested a technique in which cancer cells are "cooked" into oblivion by carbon nanotubes. Some encouraging results:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33264/title/Cooking_cancer_cells
Finally, grab a box of Kleenex and check out our favorite video of the week. In this report from ABC News, Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York transforms its cafeteria into a ballroom for one night, throwing a prom for the hospital's pediatric cancer patients.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5041177&affil=kabc
That's our recommended reading for the week, but we want to see yours too. Post 'em below or e-mail us: blog@standup2cancer.org
Ten + Inches = Small Action
Posted on June 25, 2008 4:46 PM
I like my hair. Even as it begins to turn grey (early!), it remains un-damaged by dyes, presses, perms, regular blow-dryer use, excessive product. (My puny little blow-dryer comes out for very special occasions only: high school prom, MFA graduation, the really big moments.)
I don't remember how I got the idea, but I was a single-digit age when it first occurred to me to chop it all off and donate my precious braid to Locks of Love. Something about that act was so satisfying that I have been doing it every two or three years since.
It wasn't until I started working with Stand Up To Cancer, however, that I really understood what my act meant. Unlike most of my colleagues, I am fortunate in that my direct connections to cancer are of the "early detection" variety. While I've known associates who have battled the disease to the point of baldness, none of my confidants have needed my support as they experienced the sorrow of losing their tresses (and, for some, identity) to a treatment for an illness they could not fight alone.
I am not alone: since the launch of the SU2C website, visitors have been writing to info@standup2cancer.org, divulging stories of repeat donations to LOL. Almost every time I tell someone I am working on the Stand Up To Cancer website, that someone tells me about their daughter, friend, uncle, etc. who recently sent in a 10" braid.
It is such a simple, small act. But it offers dramatic, tangible life improvement for whoever receives the hair. I am proud to be one of many who see this as something easily done repeatedly.
But almost every time I've gone in for the haircut, I've been the hairdresser's very first client requiring a 10" braid. Clearly, not enough people know about this small action they can take! Consider it. For most, ten inches grows quickly. And while my hair is un-permmed, un-dyed, un-abused, my type of hair is not the only type needed. LOL takes hair of any type except bleached/dreaded. Many different styles of prosthetic head-pieces are needed!
And if you feel that you would prefer to reach out beyond Locks of Love, perhaps to adults, consider any of the following:
Please use blog comments to suggest your own resources!
-- Rain, SU2C.org Technical Supervisor
Weekly Links - 6/25/08
Posted on June 26, 2008 2:37 PM
Another week, another round of links. We're always inspired by the stories of cancer survivors who go on to do incredible things, and this week we read a doozy of a story about a Houston grandmother who ran a marathon after beating cancer - for the third time. Maybe we should all be running a few miles a day.
http://www.hcnonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19800922&BRD=1574&PAG=461&dept_id=635432&rfi=6
Speaking of athletic accomplishments, we also loved the story of Nikki Newell, who survived a brain tumor and went on to participate in a San Diego Iron Girl competition last weekend. Iron Girl indeed!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20080620-9999-1s20breakout.html
We generally tend to focus on cancer as it affects Americans and citizens of other Westernized countries. But it's a worldwide issue, and nowhere is the problem more acutely felt than in countries where advanced technology is unavailable. In this BBC news article it is estimated that Africa will be facing a cancer epidemic by 2020 if things don't change.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7450064.stm
It may be hard to believe, but serious access problems also exist in the US, despite its status as one of the richest countries in the world. For instance, new research shows that African Americans and Hispanics are still getting less screening for colorectal cancer than their white peers.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/112584.php
Doctors call ovarian cancer "the silent killer" because, like lung cancer, it generally goes undetected until it's too late. But Swedish and Hungarian researchers have trained working dogs to actually smell ovarian cancer - even in its earliest stages.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626090901.htm
Speaking of ovarian cancer, another highly publicized study showed that a simple checklist, combined with a blood test, could detect up to 80% of these cancers while they're still in a treatable stage. The checklist alerts women to some of the symptoms of ovarian cancer, which include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain and difficulty eating.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/23/health/webmd/main4203825.shtml
Lawmakers in New York there recently passed a "cancer mapping bill," which will mandate that health care providers and the state collect extra information on cancer patients. Why? Because this kind of epidemiological data will come in handy in determining environmental causes of malignancies. Rock out, New York. Our children and grandchildren will thank you for this.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/20/ap5138737.html
Speaking of environmental causes, check out a video report on a California middle school where no less than sixteen former or current teachers have developed some form of cancer. The school denies that anything's wrong, but the American Journal of Industrial Medicine says the problem is harmful energy from bad wiring. Where's Erin Brockovitch when you need her?
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5057721&affil=kabc
To end on a happy note, take a look at this report from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers have made a breakthrough discovery that could eventually lead to - wait for it - a colon cancer vaccine. Yowza!
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/100/11/764
That's it for this week. Stay tuned - next Thursday we'll bring you a fresh round of eminently clickable, highly educational links!
--Cat Vasko, associate editor of SU2C Mag
Stories on The Stand
Posted on June 27, 2008 3:39 PM
I have spent the last few weeks reading the outpouring of stories that have been coming in to Stand Up To Cancer. We've received e-mails from survivors, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses, friends all relaying the very profound and very personal ways that cancer has touched their lives.
In difficult times, like those that accompany a cancer diagnosis, it is sometimes necessary to shelter yourself from the outside world. When my mother was battling breast cancer, it was almost like we had to close the experience to a very small group of family and friends. It was our way of keeping what felt like a very out of control experience contained to our own little world that was "functional."
But I discovered that when I started opening up the little bubble I had experienced cancer in and started sharing my story, everybody had a story. Hearing these stories allowed me to feel like I wasn't the only one. That other people powered through hardships and won. A story about their own mother with breast cancer, or their father with prostate cancer, or their 30 year old friend with melanoma, or their wife who had passed away just last year, or their own battle with breast cancer.
We have been driven through this whole project by the notion that while each cancer story is personal and distinct, they are all tied together by a common thread. We are all one degree of separation from this disease. Whether we realize it or not, each and every one of us has a story of how cancer has profoundly touched our lives.
As I started to dive into the stories that have been posted on our application on Facebook, "The Stand," I found that I couldn't simply look for one powerful example... it wasn't just "the one" story that made me teary. It was reading the litany of stories, one after another that really affected me. Stories of mothers from Kansas City, and fathers from Dallas, sisters, brothers, children, spouses and friends, all sharing their unique but connected stories. Experiencing the tapestry of story, from all over the country, hit it home for me again just how ubiquitous this disease is.
So we've decided to make these stories a part of our show. Not just one story, but many read in succession. A selection of stories from The Stand will be read live by A- List Celebrities on the September 5th telecast (ABC, CBS, and NBC, 8 p.m. EST.). Whether you are a survivor, in treatment, newly-diagnosed, touched by cancer or in the fight (doctors, oncology nurses, advocates) share your story here. Post your cancer story to The Stand.
-- Julia
