Hi,
I also watched the coverage on CNN as many of you have.
While discussions covered many facets of the disease that are too well known to us cancer survivors and the care-givers, the points that grabbed my attention were as follows:
- Lung Cancer gets the lowest research funding than
any other cancer but kills more people every year.
More die from lung cancer every year than died in
Tsunami!
- Funding is lowest because there are so few survivors who are actively lobbying the powers in the Govt and the private sectors agressively.
- Several leading doctors on the programs stated that
we are very close to finding cure for lung cancer due
to human genome projects etc., but Congress has cut
funding for many research programs at this critical
point. The doctors making these point were heads of
Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Cancer Center
among others.
While I am saddened by Dana Reeve's death, we must
work together and collectively launch a massive
public awareness campaign to focus wider attention on
this disease at this time. Thousands of lung cancer
patients, survivors and caregivers come together
regularly on this list and on many others to discuss
pertinent subjects to survive.
I have the following suggestion in light of Dana
Reeve tragedy:
Let's join our voices and launch a national campaign
similar to the one launched by Bono to focus
attention on World poverty last year( www.one.org )
We have several excellent advocates out there in LCSC, lung cancer alliance, lung cancer online, lungevity foundation, joan's legacy etc, just to name a few. All are doing admirable work. We, however, still, lack the visibility and the scale to get broad national attention and the funding increasd. CNN has given us a headstart here, but we need to ride the momentum.
So, can we request all of these groups to come
together to launch a national campaign to deliver 1
million signatures to President Bush to provide
increased funding for lung cancer research as a start?
As a former CEO of technology businesses, I am
willing to commit my time and resources to support this cause. If you share my passion on this subject,
let's talk.
Prem Chawla
Diagnosed NSCLC May 2004
Lobectomy July 2004 ( stage 3A)
Mets to bone Sept 2004 ( stage 4 )
Chemo (one cycle ) not effective
Iressa/Zometa Oct-Dec'04 - effective - stable
Tarceva/Zometa Dec-current - more effective
currently NED and in good health
