We are all asked, so often, to give our hard earned money to charities. In a world of corruption, it is easy to become cynical and wonder just WHO is getting my check, anyway?
One of the things I have come to be impressed with during my time on Team in Training, is how LLS uses the funds we wanna-be athletes are striving to bring in. Your donations are not fattening top exec wallets, they are saving lives-literally!
Here is a perfect example, from right here in Oregon. It is a letter to the editor, from a patient in Portland. It is about about Gleevec, a drug discovered at OHSU, funded by research grants from LLS. In other words, this life saving drug was brought about by all those "little" donations from people like YOU, supporting marathon participants like ME.
Giving up Starbucks mochas for a month so you can give $25.00 seems like a small sacrifice when it means you get to be a part of cancer research that is finally offering hope to the dying!
Four years ago, almost to the day, I learned I had a lethal malignancy of the blood known as chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). As shocking and devastating as my cancer diagnosis was, it led to something amazing. My doctor put me on a drug called Gleevec. Touted as the beginning of the end of cancer as we know it, this revolutionary pill was developed primarily at Oregon Health & Science University by Dr. Brian Druker, who now directs the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.
This remarkable drug normalized my white blood cell count and restored my health in just five weeks. To this day I continue to live a productive life, and the leukemia is virtually undetectable.
As one of the 120,000 patients who have defied CML's traditional three-to-five year survival prognosis, I am living proof that Gleevec more than lives up to its billing and that Druker is among the world's foremost physician-researchers. Recently, the doctor was honored with America's highest honor in medical science, the Lasker Award. This great honor is validation that victory over cancer is within our reach. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute can lead the way, if we invest in cutting-edge research.
ROB SHICK Northwest Portland
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