Thursday, February 3, 2011

CANCER MISSION 2020 - DO YOUR PART!

It seems that in our society, we have come to accept that cancer is just a fact of life and we can do nothing about it. It has come to the point that it is not a matter of “if” you will get cancer, but just a matter of “when”. Recent research indicates that all of us have cells in our body that have the potential at some point to start growing erratically and haphazardly, turning into cancer, and once that process starts and is detected, we begin our battle with this horrible disease, and this is something that is just accepted.

I am convinced that the only way we can truly defeat cancer and put an end to it, is if we the people, all of us, decide and demand that more needs to be done and no longer just accept that cancer is something we or a loved one will have to deal with.

After talking to a number of people that I respect and admire, some of them physicians and researchers at some of the best cancer centers in the United States, I am sure that we can find the answers, but first and foremost we need to create the will in the American people that we want more done and we want it done now! Each of us has the ability to say that this is where we want our hard-earned dollars to go and we need to make finding the answers to cancer a topic of national discourse. The experts feel that there has never been a better time than now with all of the technology and tools available to us.

The first steps to finding a cure to cancer by the end of the decade are for all of us to say that this is what we want and then begin spreading the word. If you are satisfied with where cancer is today in the United States then we are never going to find the answers, at least not in our lifetime.

What happened to that belief, attitude and spirit that we, as Americans in this great country, can do anything if we put our minds to it?

I feel that it is unacceptable that 11,000 Americans die from cancer every week. These 11,000 Americans do not live in a vacuum, they are our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, and as in my case, they are our children. If you are 85 years of age or younger in the United States today, cancer is the leading cause of death and if you are between the ages of 30-65, cancer claims the lives of more Americans than the next three causes combined! One out of every three American women and one out of every two American men will face a cancer diagnosis at some point in their life. Deaths from cancer in the United States today are equivalent to one of the Twin Towers falling every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE! We can no longer depend on others to do what needs to be done. We all need to become advocates for ending cancer by the end of the decade.
If you feel as I do, please take a few minutes to visit our Cancer Mission 2020 website, www.cancermission2020.com and sign-up to be a part of this effort. You only need to give your name and email address. Once you have done that, please share the site with your family, friends, colleagues and co-workers and ask them to visit the site and sign-up and then share it with their network of contacts. If we each do these two simple things - sign-up and pass it along - we will create a movement and take the first significant steps in our journey to finding the answers and putting an end to cancer by the end of the decade!

We all know family members, friends, and colleagues who are dealing with cancer right now, and we ourselves may have to face that battle as well, but at least we will know that by signing up at Cancer Mission 2020, www.cancermission2020.com, we are trying to do our part to make ending cancer one of our nation’s top priorities, rather than sitting back and watching the continual devastation that cancer continues to plaque on our loved ones.

Yes, finding the answers to cancer is a daunting task, but the time to begin is now and I challenge each of you to do your part!