A cancer charity that I support, and the one I highly recommend YOU support as well, is Stand Up 2 Cancer. The reason I support them is they are working solving the problem of cancer using real research and real science.
They are having a telecast on Friday, September 7 (8:00-9:00 PM ET and PT). Please mark your calendar for that date, and if you can find any spare charitable dollars, please use them for this event. I have stated that I would donate 10% of what I make in donations off this blog to charity, and my charity this year is Stand Up 2 Cancer. I will be making my donation on Friday, September 7th during the telecast. (And, thank you if you made a donation - the other 90% is my son's college fund.)
Executive producers Gwyneth Paltrow and Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions will join Stand Up To Cancer's production team to deliver "a one-of-a-kind show featuring performances from top recording artists, and celebrities from film, television and sports engaging viewers with powerful stories and a moving call-to-action."
This is why it's important to me. The money donated does not go to pink perfume or "awareness" campaigns. It goes to 8 "dream teams" of scientists, who are working on why cells mutate and what pathways can be used to cure cancer. (Obviously, by the wording, I show I'm not a scientist. My 15 year old son is studying college level biology right now, and I try to help me with questions, and I can't even pronounce the words. "Sigh. Mom, I told you, it's prounounced it's A-lel', not aleelee" (allele)."
Here is a description of what the Breast Cancer Dream team is working on, "In addition to developing more effective, less toxic medications for the three major breast cancer subtypes, the team is addressing cancer cells’ ability to become resistant to therapies that are initially effective, which is one of the primary obstacles to successful treatment. Understanding resistance opens the door to developing new therapeutic agents to overcome this critical problem."
All of us with metastatic breast cancer understand that. We are given a chemo that works, shrinks our tumors. We get weeks, or months of time where we feel okay, hey the stuff is working! We can beat the odds! We feel like we have a shot at seeing our children graduate and we let the house get messy again - and the the next scan shows the drugs have stopped working and the tumors are growing. Our hopes are dashed again - we are going to die after all. So, your doctor tries a new one, which may, or may not, work. But either way, it won't work for long. We are on the up and down rollercoaster of mets. Eventually, we run out of options - we have failed on every chemo - and we die. That is the life of a metastatic cancer patient.
And, that is a problem Stand Up 2 Cancer is trying to solve scientifically, along with those of other cancers. If they solve a problem with one cancer, trust me, it will cross-platform, and help everybody. Herceptin, developed for breast cancer only, is being used for stomach cancer now. The whole point of Stand Up 2 Cancer is to get working research to the patient - quickly.
To do that, they need dollars. Your dollars and my dollars.
Below you will find the information on the show, where to find them on facebook and twitter. Please don't waste another penny with Komen or the Keep-a-Breast Foundation or any other "awareness charity." Give to solid charities, like ACS and this one, Stand Up 2 Cancer where your money to good useAnd, watch the show. It promises to be a great night of entertainment.
LIVE, ONE-HOUR FUNDRAISING EVENT TO AIR
COMMERCIAL-FREE SIMULTANEOUSLY ON ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC AND CABLE
8:00 PM ET AND PT / 7:00 PM CT
http://www.standup2cancer.org | facebook.com/su2c | Twitter: @SU2C |
Tune-in: http://youtu.be/7O_P_Fr4S1E
This sounds like a very worthy cause, Ann. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I especially like the fact that money doesn't go toward pinkness or awareness. xx
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