~Brownbeansprout

This won’t be a blog that bashes- well, ok, maybe sometimes I do a little, but my intent is not to bash the SU2C Organization. 

A year ago, I was one of the awed viewers who pledged a donation.  It wasn’t something I thought twice about.  I myself am a survivor and I lost my dad to lung cancer 6 years ago as well as many friends.

I was stunned by the support and prime time airtime.  I was so proud of Katie Couric and all the announcers and movie stars and spent that night watching this amazing show in tears.  One of the few shows that make you feel so proud of it’s content.

As a cancer patient advocate for the past 7 years, I felt the ground I stood on shift a little.  The possibilities in terms of cancer research, treatment options and support were endless now, I felt.  Did the door just open?  Was this the decade that cancer became the trendy thing to support and the media would delve into it and we as a nation would finally see some real fundamental changes in terms of early detection, treatment and survivor ship?  Well?

Well, I’m still waiting…  I was disturbed when rumors floated about what SU2C was doing with the donation money, even though none of the rumors turned out to be true.  I was astonished when the stories of mothers murdering their children and husbands killing their wives topped all the cable news channels.  Shows about survivors and the need to fund cancer research were buried in back pages or seconds long at best.

I was appalled at the mass hysteria of the swine flu outbreak…the closing of school districts and evacuations…when there were only a handful of questionable fatalities at best and the swine flu wasn’t any worse than the regular flu which sees fatalities each year.

Twenty thousand people die a DAY from cancer.  My dad died of lung cancer.  450 people die a day in the US alone from lung cancer.  Where’s the pandemonium?  Why isn’t our nation up in arms over this very real epidemic?

I’ve been disheartened in my advocacy career but I know we inch forward in progress thru all our hard work.  And although last years SU2C program was amazing, I realize that this may not be the decade that lung cancer gets put on the “map”.

Of the funds raised- over one billion dollars-  NONE of it went to fund lung cancer research.

SU2C didn’t stand up for lung cancer patients.  And LC is the deadliest cancer killer.

I guess I should have kept my donation that day and sent it to LUNGevity Foundation instead.

LUNGevity is the only organization dedicated to funding lung cancer research.  LC is the deadliest cancer killer killing more than breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancers COMBINED, but gets the least federal funding.  LC is an epidemic.

If you breathe, you can get LC.

Kudos to SU2C for putting on a great show last year.  I hope that next year, some funds will find their way to LC research. 

Within a years time, we will have lost 165,000 to LC in the USA-

…while we’re waiting.