June 28, 2007
Funding Singles to Make the Home Runs in Cancer Research Possible
Stephen Dubner at Freakonomics interviewed surgeon and author Atul Gawande and asked Gawande his views on a cure for cancer:
Well, there won’t be one cure. Cancer is in fact many diseases: a breast cancer is not the same as a skin cancer is not the same as a cervical cancer. So there will be many cures and the breakthroughs will come incrementally. We now cure 70% of cancers. I suspect we will gradually push that number upward through a combination of better prevention (the HPV vaccine is just one example), better treatments for specific cancers, and better detection of cancers when they are small and most easily cured.
Our work at Golfers Against Cancer is funding research which brings incremental progress important in finding an ultimate cure or method of detection. Incremental implies "slow and plodding" to some, yet it is anything but.
Successful research is a series of building blocks of knowledge, gained through trial and error of multiple projects. This progressive gain in knowledge and insight into the behaviors of a particular cancer leads to those "ah ha" moments that researchers--and the rest of us--live for. Thanks to better research techniques and technologies, along with improved communications between researchers themselves, breakthroughs are now coming faster. They don't come, however, without steady, cumulative progress over time.
It's similar to baseball. While home runs may bring fans to their feet and receive the favored treatment when game highlights are shown on television, singles drive baseball. If you look at the top ten hit leaders of all time in major league baseball, seven of those ten are among the career leaders in singles. Without singles, it would be pretty hard for those sluggers to win the game with a three run homer or a grand slam.
The projects we fund at Golfers Against Cancer may seem small and insignificant. In fact, they are the singles which make the home runs possible.
By the way, the rest of the brief interview with Gawande is worth your time; Gawande is a talented writer whose most recent book is Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance.
Posted by John at 9:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJune 3, 2007
"Failed by Their Cells, Not Their Will"
Cancer survivor Colleen Shaddox, writing in the Washington Post, observes that those who don't survive cancer are not failed by their will or their lack of enough "positive outlook". Their physical bodies, their cells, fail them. Read all of her thoughtful commentary here; a tidbit follows:
Ultimately, stressing the importance of positive thinking is a way of managing fear. It makes cancer controllable -- for the patients, yes, but especially for the healthy. But linking virtue, resilience and survival dishonors those who do not survive.
Posted by John at 4:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackI remember watching a television segment on an athlete who'd had cancer. "Cancer really picked on the wrong person," one of those interviewed said in explaining the man's determination and ultimate recovery. So, are there right people for cancer to pick on?
I kept my sanity during treatment through the help of a support group. Half of these women have died. Those who did not make it had cancers with high mortality rates or cancers that were quite advanced when they were detected. The women were strong, smart and caring -- such terrific ladies that they almost made me believe the myth of cancer sainthood. But they also got parking tickets and forgot appointments, just like everybody else. They were human, and I loved them for it.
My friends were failed by their cells, not by their will. The horror of cancer is that it descends on irreplaceable mothers, brothers, children and friends. Some of them will die, no matter what we or they do. As we strive to honor those who had and those who are still fighting the disease, it's important to remember whom exactly our words are meant to comfort -- the people speaking, or the people in need of support.
May 30, 2007
The Faces of Those Living with Cancer
The money we raise at Golfers Against Cancer is for cancer research, but its ultimate beneficiaries, of course, are people. Some of these people, both survivors and those this disease has claimed, are family members or friends.
Many more, of course, are people we will never meet. New York magazine has a feature with the faces and stories of a wide cross-section of individuals dealing with cancer of all types, those that have suffered from the disease and are now cancer-free, those who have stopped treatment, those who are in the middle of chemotherapy. As I look at these faces, I've never met any of them, yet I know them and so do you.
They gathered in Central Park recently and were captured in this video:
Even if we don't know the specific individuals, we've dealt with or know of variations of their stories. Read the story of ovarian cancer survivor Margaret Cieprisz, who before surgery had healthy eggs removed, and now has a daughter who was carried to term by her sister. Dan Foster, a survivor of both rectal and lung cancer, now spends much of his time raising money for cancer-related charities. Consider Rose Tisnado, whose cancer in her bile ducts is driving her to pack up her apartment and move to a hospice where she will live her final days.
These faces are the faces of those that all of us know: those that have suffered from this horrible disease in the past, those battling it now, and those that will be attacked in the future. We do know them. They are us.
Posted by John at 7:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackApril 26, 2007
A "Pandemic of Cancer" in Asia by 2020
Cancer death rates in Asia are likely to spike by 2020, affected as many as 7 million people a year by 2020. News-Medical.net reports:
Parkin who was speaking at the. . . Asia accounted for about half the 7 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2002, with 23 percent in China alone. . . .
According to Donald Maxwell Parkin, a senior research fellow at Oxford University in Britain, Asia already has most of the world's stomach and liver cancer cases but could well have as many as 58 percent of all cancer cases in the world by 2020, and about 65 percent of all cases by 2050.
The WHO is also warning that Asia's annual death toll from cancer, currently at about 4 million, could reach 6.4 million by 2030 if current trends continue. . . .
Once a disease more common in wealthy nations, experts now say cancer is increasingly afflicting developing countries due to tobacco and alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets and the lack of exercise; limited access to key cancer treatment technology in developing countries will worsen the situation.
Richard Horton, editor of the British medical journal Lancet has forecast a pandemic of cancer, the like of which has never been seen before. . . .
Researchers say cancer already kills more people worldwide than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. . . .
Posted by John at 8:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 28, 2007
One Heart Rending Vignette of a Young Chinese Cancer Patient
OneManBandwidth, written by Guangzhou-based American expat Lonnie Hodge, gives a heart rending story of a young Chinese student’s fight against bone cancer, her courage, and the obstacles, including an inadequate and costly health care system, she faces:
. . . The hospital was without air conditioning and in desperate need of paint and renovation, but I knew that even this questionable house of healing was more than she could afford. I met her mother, a woman who has obviously labored hundreds of long days under the sun, and immediately knew that finances were going to the biggest single factor in Coffee’s treatment and recovery. . . . Her leg was removed only two weeks ago, but Coffee is far ahead of the healing curve. I am told that Coffee attended class up until two days before her scheduled surgery and today she shared, in confident and relaxed English, that she intends to go back to college next semester even if it is during her chemotherapy. I believe her. The school, with no handicapped accessibility, no air conditioning, overcrowded dorms and mind-numbing class schedules, is all she thinks about. She will finish college even if her post-graduate chances for good paying work have been diminished. If I could have bottled one-tenth of one-percent of the courage that issued from her today I could sell it and fund a cure for her disease. . . .
Hopefully this tidbit encourages you to read Lonnie’s post in its entirety.
Posted by John at 7:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJanuary 14, 2007
Where's the Return on Investment in Fighting Chronic Disease?
BusinessWeek's Michael Mandel asks a terrific question: why has the like expectancy for a 50 year old gone up only six years (from just over 74 to slightly more than 80) since 1950? We've spent billions on heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases over the last half century.
Could the answer be that there are too many vested interests in the business of disease?
Posted by John at 9:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 25, 2006
What You Realize When Cancer Comes
Courtesy of the Writer's Almanac, I ran across "What You Realize When Cancer Comes", a marvelous poem by Larry Smith. The poem strikes me as being as much for those of us who are cancer-free as for those afflicted by this disease:
What You Realize When Cancer Comes
You will not live forever—No
you will not, for a ceiling of clouds
hovers in the sky.You are not as brave
as you once thought.
Sounds of death
echo in your chest.You feel the bite of pain,
the taste of it running
through you.Following the telling to friends
comes a silence of
felt goodbyes. You come to know
the welling of tears.Your children are stronger
than you thought and
closer to your skin.The beauty of animals
birds on telephone lines,
dogs who look into your eyes,
all bring you peace.You want no more confusion
than what already rises
in your head and heart.You watch television less,
will never read all those books,
much less the ones
you have.Songs can move you now, so that
you want to hold onto the words
like the hands of children.Your own hands look good to you.
old and familiar
as water.You read your lover's skin
like a road map
into yourself.All touch is precious now.
There are echoes
in the words thrown
before you.When they take your picture now
you wet your lips, swallow once
and truly smile.Talk of your lost parents
pulls you out, and
brings you home again.You are in a river
flowing in and through you.
Take a breath. Reach out your arms.
You can survive.A river is flowing
flowing in and through you.
Take a breath. Reach out your arms.
If you want to read more, this poem comes from a collection of Smith's work titled A River Remains, and can be ordered directly from Bottom Dog Press.
Posted by John at 7:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 8, 2006
Betrayed by Life? Never!
Leroy Sievers has been in television journalism for 25 years. Sievers is also battling cancer, and he's sharing his fight with all of us on My Cancer, a blog carried on the NPR site, and through regular podcasts.
Sievers recently responded to a question from a reader named Troy about whether he felt betrayed by life. His answer was inspiring to me and I thought you should see it, too:
Posted by John at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack. . . Do I feel betrayed? I sometimes say that I feel that I have been betrayed by my body, that it is trying to kill me. But betrayed by life? Never. I'm not angry about my cancer, that may be the one emotion that hasn't come out of this. But I don't blame anyone or anything. I accept what has happened to me, and to so many others. But there are so many other people who are carrying a much heavier burden, who are facing much more difficult challenges.
There are people whose medical conditions make the simplest of actions, the ones we don't even think about, into an ordeal. And they live with that every day. There are people all over the world for whom every day is a struggle just to survive, to find something to eat, to find a way to avoid death at the hands of killers. I've had a good life. No, let me correct that, I have a good life. My cancer is just something bad that's happened, but it's part of my life, and I'll try to deal with it the best I can. After all, I've had plenty of good things happen to me, too.
Is it part of a plan? Is there a reason? I can give the medical reasons, but that's not what Troy is asking. And this is where it all comes down to what we believe. Is there a plan for us? Is that plan something that we can understand? Clearly, those questions can only be answered in terms of faith, or lack thereof. I don't think I'm being punished, I don't think I did anything to deserve my cancer.
There are so many things that we cannot understand. I had the good fortune to be born in this country, where I can worry about my weight, where I have access to the best medical care in the world, where life is pretty easy. There are millions of people in Africa and war-torn areas around the world who were born into a world where life is short and death is swift and brutal. Did they deserve that? Of course not.
So in the end, I fall back on one statement that I repeat to myself pretty often. "We are not given the burdens we deserve, we are given the burdens we can bear." I can bear this burden, this disease, for a while longer. In the meantime, I will try to live the best life, to be the best person I can be. I have made mistakes in my life, I have done things that I'm not very proud of, but the cancer has nothing to do with that. Cancer is just a disease, not judge and jury. Is there a reason? I don't know. But I do know that there is still a reason to get up each morning, take a deep breath, enjoy the sunrise, and then go fight like hell.
June 28, 2006
A Step Toward Tailored Cancer Treatment
A cancer research team in Boston has demonstrated a technique for isolating mutations in tumors, which can lead to more personalized treatments for cancer:
. . . a team from MIT, Harvard, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston has demonstrated a technique for isolating and quickly sequencing single snippets of DNA. And that advance could be crucial for cancer patients, since some cancer therapies work almost miraculously in some patients whose tumors contain a specific mutation, while other mutations make certain drugs ineffective on tumors.
"We want to know the mutational profile of a tumor, and then make informed decisions about the best therapy," says William Pao, a physician scientist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who has previously identified key mutations in lung cancer tumors. "The ultimate goal is molecularly tailored therapy." . . .
Kittering's Pao, who was not involved with the new research, says the results are promising. "If this kind of technique can be applied in the clinic, it would be very useful," he says. "A lot of tumor samples from patients are limited in quantity, so it's crucial to be able to take a minute amount of tumor cells and detect mutations."
The technology was launched commercially last year, and 20 or so systems have already been sold, according to Michael Egholm, the company's vice president of molecular biology.
The outfit is one of several companies striving to create fast, accurate, and affordable sequencing methods, which could ultimately have a broad impact on both cancer research and clinical practice. Last year, the National Institutes of Health (the nation's premier biomedical funding agency) announced a project to create an atlas of genetic mutations in selected types of tumors. The number and types of tumors that can be sequenced will depend largely on the speed, accuracy, and cost of new sequencing methods . . .
"We think in a few years, we'll have a catalogue of genes involved in cancer," says Larry Thompson, a spokesman for the National Human Genome Research Institute, one of the sponsors of the atlas project. "Then we should be able to develop new diagnostic tests and new targets."
"The more these technology companies move forward with improving the technology and driving down the cost," he adds, "the more rapidly they will reach the clinic."
Unless Moore's Law has been repealed, one thing is virtually certain: the cost will decline, allowing widespread adoption.
Posted by John at 8:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJune 9, 2006
Passing on a Lesson from Mom
I received this comment on a recent post I made:
Thanks for publishing my article from the Miami Herald on my Mom living her life to the fullest and not letting her sickness (lung cancer) stop her from traveling. Hope this will help others.
Pamela Edy Schlotter
Pamela, thanks for telling this story so I had the honor of passing it on. It's a important message, a wonderful lesson from your mom, for all of us.
Posted by John at 6:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJune 6, 2006
"Eliminate What's Killing You and Start Living Your Life"
Bernie Siegel, whose wisdom I've pointed you to recently, just delivered his message to a group of cancer survivors in Connecticut. The Journal-Inquirer reports:
Posted by John at 7:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackHis personal mantra is WWLD or "What would Lassie do?" he told the laughing crowd.
Dogs aren't weighed down by intellectualizing. They just feel, Siegel said, suggesting that many adults have lost the ability to just "play."
People with dogs in their homes live longer in some situations, Siegel told the crowd, referring to making connections.
Many of his anecdotes involved cancer survivors who had strong ties to family and pets.
"What would you do if you had 15 minutes to live?" he said.
He peppered his talk with reminders that people should live life doing what makes them happy - whether that final 15 minutes is spent gorging on a quart of chocolate ice cream or planting in the garden. . . .
Sunday wasn't the first time Enfield resident Daniel Wright had heard Siegel speak.
He'd first heard of Siegel about 10 years ago, Wright said Sunday, adding that he often attends Siegel's events because he gets to meet up with people he doesn't see very often - referring to Siegel's local fans.
At age 76, Wright has survived colo-rectal cancer for five years.
He was diagnosed shortly after his wife died of cancer, he said.
"I don't ever realize I have cancer," said Wright, who recently ran a half-marathon and who hits the trails to run four miles every day.
He's back on a cycle of chemotherapy but said he just gets a little cancer-related fatigue right after his treatments.
Otherwise, he's virtually unaffected. "I eat like a pig," he said.
Wright's success with handling the cancer is in line with Siegel's message, which is that attitude matters.
"Eliminate what's killing you, and start living your life," Siegel said.
May 11, 2006
A Daughter's Research to Save Her Myeloma-Striken Dad
Cancer research sometimes gets extraordinarily personal. One young lady, while researching myeloma, received the news that her father had been diagnosed with the same disease:
Sue was studying why chemotherapy does not work on myeloma. Its cancer cells have a self-defence mechanism that fights off the treatment.
Sue, then 22, was trying to find away to stop the mechanism working and allow the chemo to kill the cells. But just as she was settling into her studies, the shocking news came. Sue said: "My father had been suffering from flu-like symptoms for what seemed like six months and the doctor sent his blood for analysis.
"I was in Aberdeen in my student digs and my mum phoned me to tell me.
"I was in shock. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Having done the research for the first two months of my PhD, I knew what she was talking about. I was heartbroken. It just didn't seem fair that it was happening to us."
Read the courageous story of Sue and her dad here. Thanks to The Cancer Blog for the pointer.
When you give to cancer research organizations like Golfers Against Cancer, remember that cancer researchers are not cold robots. They are driven human beings, motivated by a deep desire to eradicate cancer as quickly as possible.
Posted by John at 4:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMay 10, 2006
Cancer Resistance Transferable in Mice. . .and Possibly Humans
Cancer resistance found to be transferable in mice; the implications for humans is very positive:
Posted by John at 9:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackIn 1999 scientists discovered a mutant mouse with the ability to ward off aggressive cancers. Bred with a female, this mighty mouse passed on his cancer resistance to roughly 40 percent of his offspring. No matter how many times the researchers challenged the immune systems of these mice with levels of cancer cells millions of times stronger than those lethal to regular mice, they proved incapable of developing cancer. Now investigators have found that normal mice injected with white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice become resistant themselves.
"The white blood cells alone were the cause of the cancer resistance," says Mark Willingham of Wake Forest University. "Not only could they kill cancer when injected together [with malignant cells], but these white blood cells could successfully be used to treat advanced tumors." . . .
In fact, a single injection of these cancer-fighting white blood cells conferred long-lasting immunity in the normal mice. "Mice with complete regression remained healthy and tumor-free at the time of publication, 10 months after the experiment," the researchers write in the paper presenting the findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
Continued research is needed to find the genetic root of this resistance, which has eluded discovery because it seems to be located in different chromosomes depending on the mouse in question. Scientists also need to identify the molecular pathways involved and replicate the results in other labs. But the findings are understood enough to have inspired the scientists to begin searching for cancer-resistant humans. "From early studies with healthy individuals, some humans are much more resistant than we thought," Cui says. "Human resistance is much, much stronger than [that of] mice."
May 5, 2006
Living Not to Avoid Dying, But to Give Birth to Yourself
Bernie Siegel is one of my favorite living human beings. Bernie is a doctor who stared Exceptional Cancer Patients, or "ECaP". Through his workshops, lectures, and terrific books and tapes, Bernie has helped further understanding of the importance of the mind-body connection for all of us, and particularly those of us battling cancer.
I came to know of Bernie through my first wife Dolora, who died of pancreatic cancer. Dolora benefitted tremendously from Bernie and his teachings, and I did too. After Dolora passed, I had the priviledge of meeting Bernie after one of the many speeches he gives, shaking his hand, and thanking him for what he did for both of us.
I recently ran across this essay of Bernie's; read it in full and reflect on it:
Posted by John at 6:31 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBackThe truth is your feelings are your chemistry and your beliefs are your biology. I was impressed early on by the benefits of accepting one's mortality. When people learned they had cancer and started living, the benefits were enormous. Many thanked cancer for changing their lives. I don't recommend waiting for a diagnosis of a serious illness to start living. Think about what you would do if you had fifteen minutes to live. Then do it for the rest of your life. I call it finding your chocolate ice cream because one of our children once said, "If I had fifteen minutes to live I'd buy a quart of chocolate ice cream and eat it." For some it means moving to the mountains and for others buying a house at the seashore, taking off their tie, closing the office and picking up a violin, making the world beautiful or spending time with the kids. None of these survivors went home to just avoid dying. They went home to live until they died, loving life so much that every cell in their body responded to their desire to live. They didn't just cope and they didn't let go. They lived life fully and exceeded everyone's expectations. The classic end to a letter I received said, "I felt awful and I thought the doctor was right. I was going to die in two months. So I went home and did all the things I loved to do before I died." The letter ends, "I didn't die and now I am so busy, I'm killing myself. Help! Where do I go from here?" I told her to take a nap. Burning up is not the problem, burning out is.
Remember, we all die eventually and living is not about avoiding that great teacher called death. It is about creating your authentic life, not one lived just for others, but your unique way of contributing love to the world. Life is a labor pain and I want you to decide what you are willing to go through in order to give birth to yourself. . . .
April 30, 2006
Developing a Lower Cost Way to Attack Terminal Cancer in India
Red Herring reports on a lower-cost treatment for treating patients with diagnoses of terminal cancer:
Posted by John at 9:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBackParthasarthy Rengarajan, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon in Bangalore, walks out of his clinic after seeing over 30 patients, flashes a smile, and gets ready to drive back home. No one would guess that the 57-year-old doctor was diagnosed 18 months ago with a deadly form of cancer—an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme.
Having lost all hope with standard treatment, he decided to try a new, experimental treatment being tested locally—and it worked so well that Dr. Rengarajan was back to operating on others in no time.
"I am over 80 percent fit with no trace of any recurrence yet," he says. Dr. Rengarajan and scores of others with terminal cancer have survived far beyond the time physicians gave them, thanks to a new technology called Rotational Field Quantum Magnetic Resonance.
RFQMR is similar to conventional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) but functions very differently in the way it attacks tumors. Since there was no control group in its Phase I trial, and therefore no measure of how RFQMR results compare to conventional therapy, hard comparative data won’t emerge until the Phase II trial. However, the new therapy surpasses what chemotherapy and radiation can do in curing sufferers, a proponent contends. What’s more, it costs only a quarter of what chemo costs, says Rajah Vijay Kumar, the chief scientific officer at Scalene Cybernetics’ Center for Advanced Research and Development. . . .
The Cytotron’s intellectual property is protected under a Patent Cooperation Treaty application and remains the only device in existence, according to Mr. Kumar, to use nuclear resonance for in-vivo tissue engineering. The multi-frequency beams that emanate from the device range from 400 hertz to 100 kilohertz. It works on the principle that each living and non-living structure has a certain natural frequency and when two objects with similar frequencies come near each other they can communicate without physical touch. Thus, the tumor cells can be given instructions to activate their normal cell cycle of apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
So far, 106 terminally ill cancer patients have been treated: 60 percent are still alive and 30 percent of them have gone back to work and normal lives. "Patients who died had severe complications from chemotherapy and radiation and did not have time to respond to our treatment," says Dr. Vasishta, the principal investigator in the study.
Chinese Doctors Using Ultrasound to Kill Cancer
Posted by John at 8:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackBy the end of 2005, HIFU [high intensity focused ultrasound] had been used in China to treat more than 20,000 patients, including a number of non-Chinese patients for whom HIFU treatment is unavailable at home. China Medical, one of several Chinese manufacturers, reports impressive response rates: 80 percent of patients saw partial or total remission of tumors following a course of HIFU treatment. But . . . HIFU is nowhere near approval in the U.S. for cancer therapy. Thus far, only one company, Israel’s InSightec Image Guided Treatment, has received FDA approval, and that is limited to the treatment of uterine fibroids—non-cancerous but often painful growths affecting about 20 percent of women.
April 29, 2006
Cure for Cancer Worth $50 Trillion to the United States
Naturally, a cure for cancer is worth more to all of us than the pure dollars and cents. A study from two University of Chicago researchers, however, finds that the impact of even modest advances in the fight against cancer, much less a cure, will have an enormous economic benefit:
A new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, calculates the prospective gains that could be obtained from further progress against major diseases. Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel, two University of Chicago researchers, estimate that even modest advancements against major diseases would have a significant impact – a 1 percent reduction in mortality from cancer has a value to Americans of nearly $500 billion. A cure for cancer would be worth about $50 trillion.
"We distinguish two types of health improvements – those that extend life and those that raise the quality of life," explain the authors. "As the population grows, as incomes grow, and as the baby-boom generation approaches the primary ages of disease-related death, the social value of improvements in health will continue to rise."
Many critiques of rising medical expenditures focus on life-extending procedures for persons near death. By breaking down net gains by age and gender, Murphy and Topel show that the value of increased longevity far exceeds rising medical expenditures overall. Gains in life expectancy over the last century were worth about $1.2 million per person to the current population, with the largest gains at birth and young age.
"An analysis of the value of health improvements is a first step toward evaluating the social returns to medical research and health-augmenting innovations," write the authors. "Improvements in life expectancy raise willingness to pay for further health improvements by increasing the value of remaining life."
Murphy and Topel also chart individual values resulting from the permanent reduction in mortality in several major diseases – including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Overall, reductions in mortality from 1970 to 2000 had an economic value to the U.S. population of $3.2 trillion per year.
Please remember Golfers Against Cancer. All of the money we raise goes directly to cancer research without passing through a bureaucratic sieve. As this article implies, even small contributions can have a major impact.
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April 8, 2006
How Cancer Deaths Could be Cut in Half
Cancer deaths could be cut in half if people simply followed advice that's known to work, according to a new study by the American Cancer Society.
None of the advice will surprise you:
Don't smoke, don't be obese, improve your diet, exercise, and make use of cancer screening tests. . .
Posted by John at 2:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 16, 2006
Laying the Burn on Prostate Cancer
Higher levels of capsaicin, the element of chili peppers which causes the burn, has been found in this study to kill prostate cancer cells.
If true, I’ve got nothing to worry about.
Posted by John at 4:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 7, 2006
Dana Reeve, RIP
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Dana Reeve succumbed to this disease despite the fact she never smoked.
This disease is not just a smoker’s disease. We all have a stake in finding a cure.
Posted by John at 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMarch 1, 2006
Lepers of the 21st Century: Lung Cancer Patients
British physician Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick sees a real danger in how the war against smoking in the U.K. stigmatizes lung cancer patients:
The immediate casualties of the war on smoking are people with lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases. This month the Lung Cancer Foundation launched the Lung Cancer Patients' Charter, calling for greater government spending on a condition that kills more people every year than leukaemia, breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, yet accounts for four per cent of the national cancer research budget. While breast cancer enjoys a high and sympathetic public profile, lung cancer - which kills nearly three times as many people every year - is stereotyped as the smokers' disease. As a result, patients with lung cancer fall far behind those with other major cancers in terms of the provision of optimum care, information and treatment. Yet, when the Lung Cancer Foundation points out that one in 10 sufferers from lung cancer never smoked, this seems only to reinforce the distinction between those considered deserving of sympathy (and healthcare resources) and those labelled as victims of their own lifestyle choices and hence considered undeserving of public concern. As the smoker has become a pariah, sufferers from lung cancer have become the lepers of the twenty-first century.
Dr. Fitzpatrick points to a trend in his own country which is playing itself out in the United States as well. (See this post for more detail.)
I’ve never been a smoker, and a lot of people in my life who I care about deeply never have been, either. The stigmatization of this disease is not only killing today’s patients, but it may kill me, or someone I love.
It could kill you.
It’s something to think about.
Posted by John at 5:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 8, 2006
Why Organizations Like Golfers Against Cancer are So Important
President Bush has proposed a freeze in the 2007 budget for the National Institutes of Health at $28.6 billion. That's $28.6 billion in a $2.77 trillion budget.
One percent.
It's why organizations like Golfers Against Cancer, which raise funds for targeted cancer research projects, are so important. Individuals have to band together to fund and find cures for cancer; the government just isn't going to lead the way.
Posted by John at 11:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJanuary 8, 2006
'Giving Others Hope and Encouragement'
The Huntsville Times has a profile of Tom Mitchell, who made a hole in one during a Golfers Against Cancer benefit tournament in Houston. Tom has been fighting an extremely rare form cancer for nearly five years and wears a heavy metal brace on one leg. We related Tom’s story here.
He told the Huntsville Times: "If I can help put others more at ease and give them some hope and encouragement, I'm proud to do it."
Tom, you encourage all of us who know your story.
Posted by John at 8:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJanuary 4, 2006
Guest Predictions for 2006 from Steve Sellery, The Golf Channel
Steve Sellery is Director of Sports Marketing at The Golf Channel, and he’s one heck of a great guy. I’ve gotten to know him principally through Golfers Against Cancer. He and The Golf Channel have been very generous with all forms of support for GAC, and if you know Steve and his colleagues, you know that such support is natural for such great people.
Here are Steve’s contributions to this week's Tidbits guest predictions:
Texas will win the National Championship tonight….
In Golf:
--Tiger Woods will win 2 majors and be # 1 in golf (again)
--Rounds of golf will be up in 2006 after several years of flat-to-down player participation
--The LPGA will have its most popular year from a fan-base perspective
--Annika Sorenstam will reach 70+ wins this year (she has 66 currently)
--The U.S. will win the Ryder Cup at The K Club later this year
--Davis Love will have his best year in many recent campaigns (possibly another major at Winged Foot)
--Fred Funk will not play the Champions Tour full-time as he will try to make The Ryder Cup Team
--Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressell will win multiple times on the LPGA, becoming a new modern day rivalry
--Lisa O’Hurley will make the cut at the BMW Cliffs Charity Pro-AmIn Politics & Finance
--The mid-term elections will not be a clean sweep for the Democratic Party as predicted
--President Bush will gain popularity again and his approval rating will increase as Iraq gains security and safety
--The housing market will not soften as much as people have said
--Interest rates will hold steady amid a new Fed Reserve Chairman
--Consumer debt will continue to increase
--The Apple Video I-Pod will become the most popular electronics device sold in 2006
--The market experiences a 10% correction
--Natural gas will have a better year than 2005In Charitable Endeavors:
--Cancer will be beaten with many new drugs and clinical trials proving to help fight the disease
--Golfers Against Cancer will raise well over $2 million in 2006 to help put an end to cancer
--Charitable giving will increase in 2006 after record-breaking donations in 2005Other:
--John O’Hurley will be a crowd-thrilling lead in Chicago on Broadway
--My wife Lindsay will give birth to a healthy baby girl in April. . . and my son Slade will be a good older brother to his new sister
Steve, your last prediction is the best; the best to you and Lindsay during such a happy time!
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November 30, 2005
A Genuine Hero in the Fight Against Lung Cancer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured a story on a hero in the fight against cancer. This man is a hero in the most genuine sense.
Two years ago, Ed Levitt was told that his lung cancer was advanced enough that he should prepare his funeral. Today, as his cancer has spread to his spine, ribs, and jaw, this man is working on behalf of literally tens of thousands in this country who die of lung cancer every year:
"I'm one of the really, really lucky ones," said Levitt, 63, a former corporate speaker who spends about six to eight hours a day working on behalf of lung cancer patients. "I'm alive."
Levitt is using what he considers his good fortune to do what hundreds of thousands of lung cancer patients have not been able enough to do: become an advocate for the disease, the No. 1 cancer killer of Americans. . . .
Lung cancer kills 85 percent of its victims within five years after they are diagnosed, most of them in the first year, according to the American Cancer Society. Because survivors are rare, advocates are rare.
Also, it's an often forgotten, or even stigmatized, disease, because people blame those who contract it for getting it in the first place, its advocates say. Lung cancer is heavily associated with cigarette smoking, with about 35 percent to 40 percent of those diagnosed being current smokers.
But there are tens of thousands, like Levitt, who are long-stopped former smokers and thousands more, like Dana Reeve [widow of Christopher Reeve], who got lung cancer despite never smoking. About 10 percent to 15 percent never smoked, and about 50 percent are former smokers.
Levitt has worked especially hard in November, Lung Cancer Awareness Month. His main goal was to convince people that lung cancer is a horrible illness that needs a little compassion --- and a lot of money --- for research if the five-year survival rate is going to improve. . . .
In the world of modern medicine, advocates have become an essential part of the process by which illnesses from AIDS to breast cancer to diabetes get funding. Better diagnostic tools, drugs and even cures have, in many cases, resulted.
Many researchers believe that breast cancer is perhaps the best example of the power of advocacy for a specific type of cancer.
According to the Lung Cancer Alliance, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 88 percent; for prostate cancer it is 99 percent.
Lung cancer's survival rate is about the same as it was in 1971, when President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer.
Advocates see a connection between low survival rates and low funding rates. They point to such things as the amount spent by the National Cancer Institute on lung cancer --- about $1,829 per each person who dies, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance --- to the amount spent on breast cancer --- about $23,474 per death. . . .
Levitt thought he was a picture of health in January 2004. A self-professed health nut who exercised four hours a day, he first noticed horrible pain in his upper leg while on a business trip. He had to drag his foot as he walked. Within a few days, one side of his face was drooping.
Then came fierce pain in his back, which he later learned was from tumors on his adrenal glands that had spread from his lungs.
In March 2004, his original doctor told him to plan his funeral, that maybe he could last 90 days with Stage IV lung cancer.
Those who treat Levitt say they are amazed at what a guy with lesions all over his body is able to do.
Levitt said he has become determined to help raise awareness of the disease so that others won't have to hear the fateful words he heard that bleak day almost two years ago.
He also credits great doctors and care providers at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute, where no one told him that he should plan for his death.
They, in turn, credit him.
"You think I'm dedicated to make a difference?" said Dr. Fadlo Khuri, a lung cancer researcher at the institute. "Here comes a guy whose time is much more valuable than mine, who could be taking a trip to Alaska or to see the world, and he's just indefatigable. He never stops; he's like the Energizer Bunny. I'll be having a bad day at the clinic, and he calls me on my way home, and he replenishes me." . . .
In between chemo treatments, Levitt meets with congressional leaders --- U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) on Nov. 21, for example. He e-mails drug company executives, and he harangues insurers who lag in paying claims for certain drugs. He brainstorms with Fenton, who is based in Washington, almost daily. . . .
Levitt knows full well that he's living on borrowed time, and that any change he may bring about will be too late for him.
As he sees it, he was granted extra time to make a difference for others with lung cancer. "We will make a dent, and the dent will get bigger and bigger and bigger," said Levitt, a London native who moved to the United States when he was a child. "And one day, we'll have such a big dent that we'll have a cure."
We will one day have a cure, thanks to the efforts of heroes like Ed Levitt. We owe it to Ed and hundreds of thousands of people like him to find the dollars necessary to fund the research which will end this blight.
Posted by John at 9:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBackNovember 23, 2005
Tom Mitchell’s Hole in One—in the Game of Life
Over this past weekend I was at the Houston fund raising events for Golfers Against Cancer, along with my partner Henry and several other great friends of ours.
On Monday, about 550 golfers played on a beautiful fall day, full of sun. We all had a tremendous time for a great cause.
The story of one particular golfer in Monday’s rounds stand out; fortunately for us, it was chronicled by his playing partner, friend, and doctor, Dr. Paul Mansfield:
Tom Mitchell stood on the #4 tee box at Champions where Ben Hogan had once looked out across the expanse of grass to the green on the par 3 and reached for his driver. Tom’s friend and teammate for the Golfer’s Against Cancer tournament, Tom Wertz, then told how Hogan had hit his driver, and after taking a 10 for the hole, went and picked up his ball and walked off the course saying, “If I can’t reach the green on a par 3 with my driver . . . “.
Twenty-four hours later Tom Mitchell stood on the tee box of the par 3 #4 at the Lakes Course at Kingwood during the GAC tournament and looked across the expanse of water to the green. The chances for the BMW, cash, and Continental Business First tickets had all come and gone, this hole was simply for closest to the pin. (As he would later find out only 3 others had reached the green that day). As the stiff wind blew into their faces, he said to his teammates, “If Ben Hogan can hit a driver on a par 3, I guess I can too.” With the driver he hit the ball, it cleared the water, landed and bounced once, rolled onto the green, curled and disappeared at the foot of the flag. Even from over 200 yards away, its disappearance in the hole was obvious. As Mitchell later put it, “I guess I got closest to the pin.”
That type of understatement is typical for this man who always seems so happy and will be the first to tell you he is richly blessed. Mitchell has come to Houston from Huntsville, AL, for the GAC tournament for 3 years now, but for 4 and one-half years as a patient at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He has a cancer so rare, it makes a hole-in-one seem like making a 10-foot putt. He has endured an 11-hour operation, nearly 3 months of in-hospital recovery, and was unable to eat for over 6 months (and his days of being a scratch golfer were by then, history). His cancer recurred and he went through chemotherapy and is now on experimental treatment in Cincinnati (where he goes weekly and had to leave the tournament festivities early so as to go receive his next treatment).
Tom lives in Huntsville, AL with his wife, Rhonda, and their 3 children. In addition to his faith and family, golf and music have been his life. He was a middle school music director and band-leader for 25 years. He has played trombone with the Huntsville Symphony and earlier this year directed the Star Spangled Banner before 85,000 fans for the Alabama-Tennessee football game (and he thought that was exciting until he finished his round in the GAC tournament).
Tom Mitchell really is what GAC is all about: fighting cancer, living and enjoying life, loving family and friends, using whatever tools you can find in the bag, and then succeeding where others have failed.
Tom Mitchell’s hole in one is not just to be found on a golf course in Houston, but in the game of life.
Posted by John at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 27, 2005
George Archer's Graceful Transition
You don't have to be a golf fan to melt while reading Steve Hummer's outstanding recounting of the late George Archer, who died of cancer about a month ago, and his last days with his wife Donna.
After reading the beginning of this story, you'll want to read the rest of the article by following this link:
Weeks after he died, George Archer still was finding ways to reach his wife. Golf had transformed the towering son of a mechanic into a Masters-certified champion. Golf had given him and his family a life rich in possibility and anecdote. Now, golf even would be his voice after cancer had snatched it.
Donna Archer finally was getting around to cleaning out an old golf bag, upgrading, when she pulled out a scorecard and felt all the breath leave her.
It was from one of the five rounds she and her husband had played in the last months of his life. George Archer's fairway farewell tour was a most private one, much more a tribute to an enduring marriage than to his 12 PGA Tour and 19 Champions Tour victories.
Sometime after that round at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club in San Mateo, Calif., George had scribbled on their scorecard and squirreled it away inside his wife's golf bag unbeknownst to her. It was his message in a bottle, cast into the unknown, to be discovered he knew only after he was gone.
He dated the scorecard: "7-29-05." And then attested: "I love you."
"He didn't usually write things like that on his scorecard," said his wife, pointedly understating. . .
The remainder of the story can be found here.
Posted by John at 5:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackOctober 3, 2005
Emory and Georgia Tech Land Major Grant for Nanotechnology-Based Cancer Research
Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute and Georgia Tech have banded together to land what is expected to amount to a $19-$20 million grant and a designation as a "National Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence." (You can find the press release here.)
We are excited about this development, as we are engaged observers of both Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute and Georgia Tech’s Ovarian Cancer Institute. They are beneficiaries of this year’s Golfers Against Cancer Atlanta Dinner for Cancer Research.
The new center, with facilities at both Winship and at Georgia Tech, will be named the "Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology." It will act as a "discovery accelerator," a term we love at GAC.
So this non-scientist gets it right, I’ll quote the press release:
Nanotechnology is research and technology at the atomic, molecular or macromolecular levels, where particles are measured with a nanometer equivalent to one-billionth of a meter, or 100,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair. Coupled with the new genomic understanding of human cancers, nanotechnology offers promise for much earlier cancer detection, personalized diagnostics for targeted treatment and the creation of new nanoscale drugs for metastatic cancers.
This grant will initially have a focus on breast and prostate cancers, two of the most common cancers where targeted nanotechnology-based detection and therapies are likely to yield considerable results.
Congratulations to Emory and Georgia Tech for working together to land this designation.
Posted by John at 9:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 27, 2005
O'Hurley's Golf Victory for Cancer will be Televised
I forgot to mention in my post on John O'Hurley's victory on the links that this match will be televised. It was taped to be aired on Saturday, October 22, from 1-3 p.m. EDT on CBS Sports.
As we mentioned, John won $300,000 to benefit Golfers Against Cancer.
You may already know the winner, but how he did it was pretty exciting, so watch it if you can!
Posted by John at 5:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 26, 2005
Stirring Thoughts on the Search for a Cure from Christopher Reeve
The late Christopher Reeve awed us by the inspiring life he lived and the rousing words whose echo resounds today. Picking a quote of the day for Sunday, which would have been Reeve’s 53rd birthday, was difficult.
I ran across a longer quote from Reeve which was tremendously encouraging to me, given how much the mission of Golfers Against Cancer has been on my mind this past week. In testimony before Congress in 1999, Reeve urged us to action with these words:
We live in a time when the words impossible and unsolvable are no longer a part of the scientific community's vocabulary. Each day we move closer to trials that will not just minimize the symptoms of disease and injury but eliminate them. You have heard from the Directors of the NIH [National Institute of Health] over the past few weeks of new medical interventions that will end epilepsy, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, the devastating effects of stroke, chronic pain, organ rejection after transplantation. You have listened as the directors have outlined the details of an HIV vaccine, dramatic improvements in the effective treatment of drug addiction, mouse models that accurately reproduce human cancers in order to permit early detection and interventions, and of course, the miraculous mapping and sequencing of the human genome which is already changing the world of medicine and medical research. The rapid pace of these advances is occurring because you, the Congress of the United States and our President had the vision in 1998 to increase funding for the NIH by 15%. This momentum must not be slowed.
Though our government may operate on a budget that is decided from year to year, our scientists cannot. New scientific initiatives, experiments, and laboratories across the United States, once nurtured and financed, operate on 2 and 3 and 4 year plans. We must not fund our scientists who have the potential to alleviate enormous suffering without giving them the assurance that we will not put on the brakes and stop the flow of dollars that will make their progress possible.
We’re not content to wait for governmental bodies. The mission of Golfers Against Cancer and similar organizations is to speed the search for a cure, through direct contributions to renowned cancer research institutions such as the Winship Cancer Institute. GAC, in fact, has helped fund studies similar to what Reeve referred to in his testimony.
Moreover, there is no thick administrative sieve which snags a tidy portion of contributed dollars. GAC is just a committed band of volunteers who hate cancer. More dollars, consequently, get applied directly to targeted research projects.
When you read, therefore, that John O’Hurley has won $300,000 for GAC in a charity golf tournament, this sum goes a long way in effort to fund groundbreaking cancer-fighting research.
Moreover, because of our low costs and targeted projects, even much smaller sums go a long way. It’s a good thing, because I’ll never beat Anika Sörenstam in a charity golf tournament.
Please consider the offer I made a week ago, one which several generous friends have taken us up on. If you’ll send a check for $250 or more for GAC, I’ll send you your choice of one of my recommended books in "Tidbits," which you can find on the main page, or John O’Hurley’s new CD. True to our commitment to keeping administrative costs down, I’ll have your choice sent to you; GAC won’t have anything to do with it.
We’ve already received generous and gratifying support, which heartens us deeply and leaves us profoundly grateful. Thanks are also due to those of you considering supporting this cause.
With your help, the time will come when cancer will be only a bitter memory, and Christopher Reeve’s prophetic words will be fully realized. That day, my friends, is closer than you may realize.
Posted by John at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackO’Hurley Wins Again for Cancer Research, This Time on the Links
My hat is off to any man that can win a dance contest on national television and then a few days later win in a charity golf tournament which includes Annika Sörenstam. That’s exactly the feat John O’Hurley has accomplished.
In The Cliffs Challenge, John battled Sörenstam, Branford Marsalis, and Kurt Russell in a four person charity tournament. As with "Dancing with the Stars," John came from behind to win at the end, and cancer research was the big winner.
John won $300,000 for Golfers Against Cancer, while the rest of his competitors won $50,000 for their favorite charities. You can read more by following this link.
Thanks to John’s skills and his generosity, Golfers Against Cancer has had a tremendous week! Thanks, John, for your continued support in the fight against cancer.
Posted by John at 4:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 22, 2005
John O’Hurley—and the Fight against Cancer—are Winners!
John O’Hurley won the "Dancing With the Stars" dance-off! Congratulations to John and his professional dancing partner Charlotte Jorgensen; they had to dance their best to top Kelly Monaco and her professional partner Alec Mazo.
It was all for a great cause. As we’ve highlighted this week, John was dancing to benefit Golfers Against Cancer, and did GAC’s effort to fight cancer ever benefit! John accepted a check for $126,000 for GAC this evening! Given that GAC is an all-volunteer organization funding targeted cancer research projects, these funds will advance the fight against cancer tremendously.
John’s efforts to draw attentin to Golfers Against Cancer and expand its work have been simply tremendous. John, you’re the best, and everyone appreciates your generosity and your support of the cause. You’re a truly an all-around winner!
Posted by John at 9:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackWatch the “Dancing” Results Thursday
On Thursday evening, ABC-TV will air a replay of the "Dancing with the Stars" dance-off between John O’Hurley and Kelly Monaco. The replay will be at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central time. If you missed the telecast on Tuesday (like those of us attending the Golfers Against Cancer Atlanta Dinner for Cancer Research), please watch tonight.
The "results" show, in which the winner will be announced, will be at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central time. Obviously, we're nervously hoping that our pal John will be the winner!
One way or the other, however, John has made sure that Golfers Against Cancer will be a winner! He’s designated Golfers Against Cancer as a beneficiary from the "dance-off," and all of us with GAC are gratified by John’s support.
You should know, by the way, that John’s been a long-time supporter of the organization with both his money and time. He’s our "in-house" M.C. and auctioneer and does a tremendous job at every dinner he lends his talents to.
Please watch tonight!
Posted by John at 3:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 21, 2005
One More Step Taken in the Fight Against Cancer
We had a tremendous night at Tuesday’s Golfers Against Cancer Atlanta Dinner for Cancer Research. We’re tallying the proceeds, which I’ll report when I can.
Everyone seemed to have a great time, and we enjoyed the "fun part" of the evening, catching up with friends, and bidding in the silent and live auctions on some terrific items. Our dancing pal John O'Hurley sent us a taped message, regretting his inability to be with us, but inspiring in its call to action. Importantly, we were all moved by the descriptions of the significant work going on at great research facilities like the Winship Cancer Institute.
As our founder Bobby Jones, whose enthusiasm could turn a donkey into a Derby winner, said in his remarks, "we’re trying to put ourselves out of business." If we work hard enough to back some of the tremendous researchers we’ve identified in Atlanta, Houston, New York, Greensboro, and elsewhere, we can get there. That’s our goal—nothing less.
Posted by John at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 19, 2005
Get Those Fingers Ready: Here's the Number You Need to Vote for John
The phone number to vote for John O'Hurley (and benefit Golfers Against Cancer) has been posted on the "Dancing with the Stars" website.
The number is: 1-866-613-0002, toll-free. There's a limit of five votes per phone line, which means you can vote from your cellphone, home line, and so forth.
Please vote! It's for a great cause.
Posted by John at 7:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackJust a Reminder: Vote for John O’Hurley and Help the Fight Against Cancer
Tomorrow night, on ABC-TV’s "Dancing with the Stars," a vote for John O’Hurley is a vote which will help the fight against cancer. John will be dancing to benefit Golfers Against Cancer, an all-volunteer organization which raises money to fund cancer research. You can get the full details by reading what I posted Saturday or directly at the Golfers Against Cancer website.
Last night, by the way, Golfers Against Cancer rolled into Greensboro for the first time, as our friends their held their first Inaugural Dinner for Cancer Research. They’re still tallying the results, but the initial word is that they raised over $165,000 in one evening. This is a tremendous result and our pals in Greensboro should be proud to have "fought the fight" in this way.
We'll be gathering in Atlanta tomorrow night for our second year. Some of you will be there to lend your support personally. We thank you, in advance, for your tremendous support.
Others of you have and will make donations to this cause apart from these dinners, and your support is accepted and appreciated. One thing's for sure: you don’t have to be a golfer; anybody who’s seen me play knows I’m not! You simply have to want to help find a cure.
If you’re motivated to give $250 or more, I’ll send you a gift of thanks. You can read the details here.
To those of you who’ve already responded, we thank you, especially on behalf of those that will directly benefit because of your generosity.
Posted by John at 6:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackSeptember 17, 2005
Help Find a Cure for Cancer: Vote for John O’Hurley Tuesday Night
A few months ago we lamented the loss our pal John O’Hurley sustained in the finals of "Dancing With the Stars," a ballroom dancing competition which aired on ABC-TV. Despite the controversial decision, John, as we noted, held his head high and was a class act.
The controversial ending has provoked a friendly rematch. It’s friendly, because both John and his competitor Kelly Monaco will be dancing for charity. John’s charity of choice is Golfers Against Cancer.
I’m involved with Golfers Against Cancer because of John, who introduced me to the remarkable guy who founded GAC, Bobby Jones (no, not that Bobby Jones). I met Bobby, a senior executive with BISYS Corporation, through John. Bobby, like John, is the kind of guy who, after you’ve known him for five minutes, you feel like you’ve got a lifelong friend.
Early on, John served as master of ceremonies for GAC’s fund raising dinners. When we held the inaugural dinner in Atlanta last year, John also served as our M.C. and auctioneer, and we had a tremendous evening. After matching grants, we raised $350,000 for cancer research from that dinner. The proceeds went to specific research projects we earmarked at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute.
Our Second Annual GAC Atlanta Dinner for Cancer Research will be on Tuesday evening. Unfortunately, John will not be able to join us, because he’ll be dancing.