The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation » SIMPLY THE BEST DINNER GALA 2006

SIMPLY THE BEST DINNER GALA 2006

THE BONNIE J. ADDARIO A BREATH AWAY FROM THE CURE FOUNDATION’S SIMPLY THE BEST DINNER GALA
RAISES $550,000
First-time event at San Francisco’s City Hall Brought Together 600 People to Help End Lung Cancer

San Francisco, CA – November 16, 2006 The Bonnie J. Addario A Breath Away from the Cure Foundation today announced the organization raised $550,000 at its first annual gala event on Thursday November 9, 2006. The event, themed SIMPLY THE BEST, honored U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, UCSF’s Dr. Thierry Jahan and researcher Zhidong Xu, Dr. Fred Marcus of Sequoia Hospital, survivor Rebecca Broder and Tony Addario.

The ABAFTC Foundation raises money to help fight lung cancer. In 2007, the ABAFTC Foundation’s main goal is to launch a nationwide early detection and screening program in at least 10-12 states. “While we wait for co-founder Dr. David Jablons and his team to find the cure, which they will, screening is our priority so that we can save as many lives as possible,” said Addario.

There was a bright light shining at City Hall in San Francisco on Thursday. The evening was declared “Lung Cancer Awareness Day” by Mayor Gavin Newsom and more than 100 Mayors, Senators, legislators, ordinary and extraordinary people across the country. Lung Cancer patients who attended, from coast to coast, were overheard saying they felt like they finally had a voice and hope—thanks to the eight-month-old Bonnie J. Addario A Breath Away from the Cure Foundation (www.abreathawayfromthecure.org). That light was shining on patients, doctors, families, friends, and supporters of “ending” lung cancer. Dr. Claudia Henschke, the leading crusader and medical authority on lung cancer screening and early detection, who flew in from the East Coast to attend the event, spoke volumes about its significance when she said to founder Bonnie J. Addario: “I didn’t think it was possible to bring 600 people under one roof for lung cancer, but you did it.”

Lung Cancer came out of the darkness and Bonnie Addario is proud to be one of the people making this happen. She knows what it is like to fight for her life. Bonnie knows about the smoking stigma. And she knows, by accident, miracle or serendipity, she is one of the extremely lucky and rare individuals who can call herself “a lung cancer survivor.” That is why these days, she has no choice but to wake up every day committed to the 173,000 lung cancer patients—smokers and non-smokers—who are confronting lung cancer for the first time this year. Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the United States, taking more than 160,000 lives each year. Yet, lung cancer receives less research funding than almost any other cancer, making her mad, and making her mission more than just compelling—it’s vital! On March 6, 2006, Addario rallied the troops—leading thoracic cancer physicians like UCSF’s Dr. David Jablons and Dr. Thierry Jahan, other survivors, Hollywood actors and actresses, politicians, family members who have lost loved ones to lung cancer— everyone she could find. And hundreds began to come. She jokingly likes to say her Foundation is becoming the venture capital for lung cancer research.

While research moves on at a roaring pace in the labs, it is this Foundation’s job to get information to the streets. While everyone waits for the cure, Addario has made it her plight to wave the banner about the importance of early detection as the only way to fight this disease. She is shining a light on that shadow and making it go away. With unstoppable commitment to living each day as if it were her last, she has organized a Team that is making a huge difference in how people feel about lung cancer and its future. And she’s not going to stop until Lung Cancer Matters Too!

On the same night House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi was named Speaker of the House, her attention was on this event at City Hall, sending awards and commendations to all of the hero honorees of the Gala. Author of the unanimously passed Senate Resolution 408, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, came all the way from Washington, DC to continue to declare lung cancer a national priority and accept his LUMIMOSITY AWARD from the Foundation. California State Assemblymember Mark Leno was there with more commendations. From Los Angeles, ABC soap star Nancy Lee Grahn, who plays a lung cancer patient on General Hospital, arrived and has claimed the leading role as the Foundation’s spokesperson for the battle against lung cancer.

One of Addario’s dream team doctors and recipient of the SIMPLY THE BEST AWARD, Dr. Fred Marcus of Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at Sequoia Hospital says this: “Treating people with advanced lung cancer is challenging, but the tides are starting to turn with respect to new therapeutic options available based on outstanding breakthroughs in cancer biology. The future looks much brighter today than it did even one year ago.”