NOW is the TIME!

[Connie B]

I want to ENCOURAGE all or members here (Survivors and Caregivers) to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take 15 minutes of your time over the next 4 days and start to send some EMAILS to The Good Morning Shows, Today Show, all the early morning shows, ALONG with you LOCAL NEWS stations and NEWSPAPERS about your Lung Cancer Journey.

THIS IS THE TIME FOLKS! WE REALLY COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE HERE on LUNG CANCER RESEARCH AND ISSUES!

PLEASE I BEG YOU to send some emails to all that will listen. And also mention NOVEMBER IS LUNG CANCER AWARENESS MONTH and we deserve to be heard also!!

Our Local TV Stations are also talking about lung cancer issues, so if ours is doing it, your may be doing it too!

I have sent 3 emails to our Local News Stations, and to both of our local newspapers. It's really easy to do. I also sent one to CNN last night and plan to do a LOT MORE TODAY!

Do it in memory of in honor of your loved one.

[ginnyde]

Connie, for those of us who are writing impaired, could you please copy your emails for us to plagarize?

[Karma1976]

I totally agree with this. I did this after peter jennings, although for some reason I think they were more along the lines of he smoked hence he got it and the rest of us are in the clear attitude. But She brings hope that people will understand it is not just that!!! Did anyone see Access Hollywood they did and excellent job as well!

[Connie B]

Okay Ginny here's my letter on Lung Cancer. You may be sorry you asked. I just changed the heading to who I was sending it to.

**************************************************

Dear CNN :

My Name is Connie Berchem, and I am a 10 -1/2 year lung cancer survivor.

I was very saddened by the loss of Dana Reeves as well as many other lung cancer patients that have lost there battle with lung cancer, some of who were very dear friends of mine. I know what it's like to lose a loved one to lung cancer, for I have lost my father (age 54), mother (65) and my sister (age 43) all to lung cancer.

I started up an in person Lung Cancer Support Group here in Minnesota (first of it's kind ever) 7 years ago. I'm happy to report that our group is still going strong and we have several of our members who are 6 and 7 year lung cancer survivors and still doing well to this day. But sadly we have lost more members to this beast of a disease then those that have beat it. That has to change with early detection methods.

I also am a Board of Director for Lung Cancer Support Community ( www.lchelp.org ) which is a wonderful Internet Support Board that was started up by a husband and wife (Katie and Rick Brown) whom Katie has since lost her father to lung cancer a little over two years ago. I encourage you or your staff to take a minute or two and please stop in to our Website and Support Family and see what we're all about. It's a group of wonderful folks from all over the world offering support, and medical information to one an other that are in the battle of there lives against lung cancer, be it caregivers or survivors of this disease.

I wish to share with you that at my Lung Cancer Support Group here in Minnesota one of the things we never do in our group is ask the person if they are a smoker or non-smoker or an ex-smoker. Reason being, we don't care! We're here to support these people without judgment or without adding a stigma onto there already very difficult battle against lung cancer.

I also wish to make mention of the Minnesota Tobacco Lawsuit's 6 years ago, that not ONE DIME or ONE PENNY has gone toward or for Lung Cancer Research or Early Detection for Lung Cancer! This lawsuit was brought on behalf of Smokers in the USA. And yet, not ONE CENT has gone to lung cancer research. Instead, we are getting our roads added on to, and repaired and they gave 2 million dollars to a smoking cessation program that doesn't seem to think lung cancer research is a worth while cause either. This program snubs there noses at ex-smokers if and when they get lung cancer. Yet they are suppose to be helping people quit smoking. They never tell these people that they are still at risk for getting lung cancer down the road. How shameful it that?

I wish to make mention that 80% of my Lung Cancer Support Group members are ex-smokers of 10, 15, 25 years ago, and YET they are walking into our support group with lung cancer at an early age, in complete shock, when they were TOLD if they QUIT smoking there chances of getting lung cancer lessons by 90% . That in MY opinion is a doctor's OPINION and NOT a100% MEDICAL PROOF!! The Statistics are out dated and need to be brought up to date. Most of them are 5 to 8 years old by the time they are published.

The STIGMA that goes with lung cancer has to be STOPPED! NO-ONE DESERVES LUNG CANCER or any other kind of cancer for that matter. Lung Cancer is the ONLY cancer that comes with a BLAME FACTOR! And in my humble opinion that is just plan WRONG AND MEAN! They don't look at woman with breast cancer and say, "Oh you didn't breast feed your children?"

More people die from lung cancer each year and yet it's the less funded of all the cancers. I hope and wish some day that Lung Cancer as well as other cancers will be a recognized as Breast Cancer has been and remains to be. I hope that one day I will be able to buy something with the Lung Cancer Ribbon attached to it saying X- amount of dollars will go toward Lung Cancer Research with your purchase of _ _ _ _ _ _.

We living with lung cancer need to be heard and we need to stop being treated like second or third class citizens. We need to STOP blaming lung cancer on smoking. They stopped blaming Aides on Homosexuals, and they can do it with Lung Cancer and Smoking! It's NOT JUST A SMOKERS DISEASE! I believe this stigma halts our chances of getting research money to fight against lung cancer. Lung Cancer Patients don't have fancy Lung Cancer Clinics like Breast Cancer Patients do. And it just keeps going on and on and on!!!!

Thank you for listening and I hope others from my Support Groups will follow in my foot steps in helping me to get the word out about Lung Cancer.

NOVEMBER IS: LUNG CANCER AWARENESS MONTH!

Does anyone know that??? I hope someone will hear it NOW!

Sincerely,

Connie L. Berchem

Dx.d with Andenocarcinoma

1995, had let lung removed,

underwent Chemo & Radiation

I am Cancer Free and Grateful

to be! I had a wonderful team

of Doctor's and still do!

****************************************************

Hugs,

Connie

[SBeth]

I've done this too Connie. Thank you for the gentle nudge and reminder that we have to ALWAYS be proactive for the cause; not just during times when the rest of the country is showing an interest.

[Karma1976]

someone from ABCnews thanked me for the email and the suggestion. It was not an automated one and it was at least 4 hours later. I would keep emailing our stories!!

[Donna G]

Connie, great job! Donna G

[Jyoung20]

Hey Connie,

I am on top of it!!! I e-mailed about 10 different media outlets today. I also interviewed with ABC yesterday and basically talked about hope and love for one another and the urgent need for more research. I talked about the negative stigma, awareness and many other things but they really didn't show that. But, it's a start!!!!

Connie is so right---if we all join together--we can make a difference!!!

Love you All!!!

Jamie

[RandyW]

As soon as I can regain Some composure tonite I will try my local stations. Thanks. Today has been harder more so than lately.

[carolhg]

Just want you to know that I am on the team and have sent my emails to the media.

[Maryanne]

I posted this in the LC in the news section, but wanted to put it here also in case it was missed.

I sent this on to CNN along with Heathers email address. I hope something can become of it.

The exposure is so tremendous right now. CNN is doing a show on it all day today.

TO CNN:

The above email address is for Heather Saler who is a young mother non smoker sho has LC and is doing well from a special micro biotic diet she is on. The doctors are amazed how well she is doing.

She has been on our local television shows and has had her 2nd Heathers walk for LC in Nov. in New Jersey where she raised 30,000 the first year for LC research and 45,000 this past year.

She is a beutiful, amazing women.

You may want to email her for her story. Our local paper did a front page story on her.

I think her story along with her diet can help these women who have LC and are non smokers along with others who do smoke.

Thank you

Maryanne

http://kyw.com/health/local_story_066175120.html

I just email them the link to Heathers story from channel 3 news.

[Lauriannessister]

I wrote three local stations and to Oprah today. I got my letter to 1999 characters out of the 2000 they allow! Woohoo!

Here it is, for anyone who needs inspiration. My mom suggested I put in links so the producers can read more about lung cancer, which is why I mention my website and lchelp.org.

Last September, I emailed you about my sister Laurianne who was battling lung cancer and had recently had a brain tumor removed. My sister lost her battle to lung cancer in October of 2005. She was only 25 years old.

I would like to see you do a story on Laurianne and people like her who are battling lung cancer. In June 2005, two days after the birth of her son, she was diagnosed with mucinous adenocarcinoma, a rare non-smoker lung cancer. I flew out to California in September 2005 because she had a very large brain tumor removed related to the lung cancer. When she was in ICU, she said she wanted to tell her story to Oprah. Since Laurianne can not be here to tell her story, my family and I feel it is important to tell her story for her.

Laurianne was very active in getting the disease noticed in her community. She grew up in California a state that frowns upon smoking. We still are not sure how she got lung cancer. But like Laurianne did in the short amount of time she was here, my family and I are doing what we can to raise awareness.

My dad and I started the blog Laurianne's Hope (lauriannes-hope.blogspot.com) to raise awareness of this terrible disease, and to let people know that it is not just for smokers. I hope with the recent death of Dana Reeve, you will consider doing a show on lung cancer and the people it affects. I hope that Oprah can help people realize that lung cancer has a smoking stigma attached to it, but many non-smokers like Dana Reeve, are also getting the disease, and in all age brackets. Thanks to lung cancer, my brother and I no longer have a sister, my parents no longer have a daughter, and my nephew no longer has a mother. I truly feel if my sister can get lung cancer, anyone can.

If you would like more lung cancer stories, please visit lchelp.org. There are a lot of great people there who would be willing to share their lung cancer story with Oprah. This is not a rare disease and I feel that it is definitely worthy of Oprah's attention.