Stand up to Cancer - tonight

Stand Up To Cancer is an evening to raise awareness and funds for cancer - not breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer - but cancer itself. In today's world, I think sometimes we focus a bit too much on individual cancer fundraising, but think of how much we could do if we all helped each other?

Here is the mission statement from Stand Up To Cancer:

Here we stand, on the verge of unlocking the answers that will finally conquer the devastation that is cancer.

We now understand the very biology that drives cancer. With knowledge gained from the mapping of the human genome, we can now target the genes and pathways that are involved in turning normal cells into cancerous ones. We are on the brink of possessing a toolbox full of new, advanced technologies just waiting to be adapted to benefit patients. Right before us, so close we can almost touch them, are scientific breakthroughs in the prevention, detection, treatment and even reversal of this disease.

For the first time we can envision the possibility of stopping cancer in its tracks. But just when science is on the verge of giving us the breakthroughs that can end cancer, the will and the funding to do so are disappearing from the national agenda and from our collective consciousness.

Cancer takes one person every minute. One life in a moment. They are our brothers, our sisters, our fathers and mothers, our husbands and wives, our best friends, our children, ourselves. Every day in America 1500 people die and yet the means to save them are literally within our reach. To wait any longer for someone else to save our lives and the lives of those we love is unforgivable.

Inspired to act by our own personal experiences with cancer, we recognize that we can no longer rely on the current system alone to give us the breakthroughs we need. So, we are calling on the public to help take matters into our own hands, investing in a revolution that will change the way scientist and clinicians work to understand and treat these diseases. Stand Up To Cancer is more than a rallying cry. It is a galvanizing force created to urgently move cancer research forward.

This is where the end of cancer begins: when we unite in one unstoppable movement and Stand Up To Cancer.

How?

Working with the top experts in cancer research, Stand Up To Cancer is forging a new way to develop breakthroughs that will end cancer. We’re putting together the best and the brightest minds in cancer research – those on the edge of accomplishment – investing in their projects and taking the bureaucratic obstacles out of their way. We are building interdisciplinary “Dream Teams” of scientists, clinicians, technicians and other experts, who will focus on a specific cancer problem. We’ll track their progress in real time, so that everyone who invests can see how their participation is creating real change.

Funds will be administered by the American Association for Cancer Research, the largest scientific organization in the world focusing on every aspect of high-quality, innovative cancer research. Together with their scientific Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee, comprised of world-class scientists across several disciplines and patient advocates, the most promising projects will be identified.

What can you do? You can visit the site and learn how you can Launch a Star or make a donation. You can visit the their partners and you can learn more.

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Posts at Help My Hurt and Womb Within for SU2C:

Cancer and pregnancy - you are not alone

10 best cancer pain posts - Stand up to Cancer

Watch your blog and site colours

Please, please, please, watch the colours you choose for your sites and/or blogs. Like thousands of others, I cannot - absolutely cannot - read white text on black backgrounds. If I flip through a magazine and they have part of an article that way, I have to skip the article. If I come across a website that is that way, I click off it immediately because even the few seconds I look at it before I can click off, causes migraines.

I just clicked on a site that a Twitter person recommended. It sounded great. If it sounds great enough, I'll highlight and copy the paste to copy it into a Word document to read. The problem is, in the few seconds it took to do that, my eyes hurt and now my head hurts. A lot. Now, the rest of my day will be shot.

Sadness at the passing of my greyhound

Some of you who read this blog or my others know about my love of dogs, particularly of greyhounds. In January 2004, our golden retriever, Rox, died from cancer at the age of 9 years. Five months later, we brought home our first greyhound, Oscar. Then in August, 2007, we lost him, also to cancer. He was 10 days shy of his fifth birthday.

Three months after Oscar died, we brought home his half-sister Dee, who had retired from being a brood mom. She had not had a home so she had some things to learn and get used to. She fit right in and I fell in love with her before I went to sleep that first night. Dee turned 9 years old on December 23, but she didn't make it to 10. Dee died last week. We're not entirely sure what the problem was in the end, but she did have problems with an old break in one of her legs. She had horrendous arthritis in the break that caused her a lot of pain. We tried many things to try to relieve her pain, some worked better than others, but she never seemed to be pain free.

They're never here long enough, are they?

Today on Help My Hurt:

Speaking of knee injuries… Tiger Woods update
Wait for at least 6 weeks to drive after bunion surgery
People with HIV have higher risk of bone fractures

Today on Womb Within:

Sarah Palin and her son with Down’s syndrome
“Speak Up When You’re Down”
Traumatic events in pregnancy may affect baby after all
Celebrity pregnancy round up

News for Today:

Heart experts clash on Vytorin and cancer risk (Reuters)
Fewer kids died after Ont. adopted bike helmet law
Heart bypass better than stents, study finds
Severe side effects from HPV vaccine rare: study