Just thought I’d share about our event in Boston last week. It was incredible!
Over 400 people packed into the Prudential Center in Boston to honor loved ones and learn about lung cancer.
Five of Boston's major cancer centers were represented, all at tables lined up next to each other including Dana Farber, Mass General Hospital, Beth Israel, Brigham & Women and Boston Medical Center.
Several lung cancer advocacy groups were at tables as well including the National Lung CancerPartnership, Lungevity, Uniting Against Lung Cancer and Upstaging Lung Cancer.
It was so phenomenal to see all of these hospitals and advocacy groups standing side by side, offering the community so much hope about lung cancer advocacy and research.
Our local ABC news anchor, Heather Unruh, whose mother is a lung cancer survivor, was an eloquent emcee, setting a tone of hope for the evening.
Our Senate President, Terese Murray, pledged to support lung cancer research and shared her personal connection with lung cancer – her best friend was diagnosed a year ago. She then read the state proclamation declaring November Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
People who were just walking by stopped to hear the speakers because they had been affected by lung cancer. One woman had lost her mother the day before the vigil, but she saw one of our signs and decided she had to come.
We had 6 speakers who shared their personal stories including Linnea Duff, a never-smoker diagnosed in her early 40’s at a late stage and who is currently 18 months into a clinical trial at MGH for her ALK-4 mutation and doing incredibly well;
Other speakers included Deidre Malloy, a 7 year, Stage IIIB NSCLC survivor, Rich Monopoli, who lost his wife Sara Thomas Monopoli less than two years ago when she was only 35 and had just given birth to their only child; Stephanie Fellingham Brumett, the wife of Kevin Brumett who was an incredible advocate and spoke out whenever he could until he succumbed to his disease last May at the age of 31.
And finally, Diane Legg, the Co-chair of Lung Cancer Alliance-Massachusetts shared her story of survival and hope as a 5-year lung cancer survivor and mother to 3 young boys.
We read out loud the names of 400 lung cancer survivors as well as those we lost to this disease, like my mother.
There were many tears shed - but also so much hope in the room as we heard from some of Boston's top doctors speak of the incredible research that's being done to help find personalized treatments for lung cancer.
It was a phenomenal way to start Lung Cancer Awareness Month in Massachusetts.
Congratulations to everyone who is doing something fabulous for lung cancer awareness month, from incredible fundraising to much-needed awareness-building and media exposure. We're not sitting back and letting lung cancer be ignored. We’re all making BIG noise about this disease.
Every little thing we do takes us closer to a cure. We ARE the lung cancer movement - and we're moving!
A former coworker of mine has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. The lung cancer was caused by job related asbestos exposure. Public awareness of asbestos-related lung cancer is important.
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