Bonnie’s Story
First I need to tell you…that’s my granddaughter Bella, who is someone, like all my children and grandchildren, I simply can’t live without.
And with that said, here is my story:
It has been another whirlwind autumn for Bonnie Addario. The San Carlos, California Lung Cancer survivor has circled the world running one of the largest Lung Cancer foundations, and rallying the field’s foremost researchers, clinicians, and business leaders from across the globe to help find a cure for this Number One cancer killer. At the same time, Bonnie spends her days reaching out to the recently diagnosed. Bonnie is passionate about helping them find the best treatment options, because she is determined that no one else should join the ranks of the 450 people who die each day of Lung Cancer in the United States.
Nothing puts her vigilant mission into perspective like meeting the hundreds of people she has shared her experiences with who are battling this cancer. “The one thing I wasn’t prepared for was the ‘stigma’ that is stuck to Lung Cancer,” says Bonnie, who adds that 60 percent of lung cancers now are diagnosed in people who’ve quit smoking decades ago or never smoked at all. “It continues to be viewed as a self- inflicted disease that only smokers get. I never could really understand why there wasn’t as much compassion for people with Lung Cancer as there was for people with other cancers. It still breaks my heart.”
Bonnie, 61, is doing something about it. As a former president of a major oil company in San Francisco, Bonnie already was a seasoned barrier breaker. But the mother of three and grandmother’s life changed when she felt a shooting pain across her chest. Originally she was mis-diagnosed – twice. She took her own health into her own hands. Accompanied by her husband Tony, she went in for a full-body scan and was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in 2004.
That is when serendipity also stepped in. Reading a newspaper article in a San Mateo paper, she providentially stumbled on a leading team of Lung Cancer doctor’s and treatment options. Right in her own backyard.
Dr. David Jablons was one of the many doctors who performed Bonnie’s surgery at UCSF. Because Bonnie asked so many questions while she was under his care, Jablons asked her to become a member of his thoracic advisory board.
“I was just outraged about the Lung Cancer statistics,” recalls Bonnie. “Nineteen people die per hour and
1.3 million die every year in the world. I couldn’t believe all these things were happening and that Lung Cancer research was underfunded, under-researched and diagnosed, more often than not, too late.
Most people who have Lung Cancer are diagnosed at stage four, and they don’t live longer than three or four months.”
In the three years since she and Dr. Jabons founded the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, with a goal that is being realized-to take this internationally-she has raised almost 4 million dollars to help eradicate Lung Cancer.
In 2007, the foundation brought in Michael Milken as keynote speaker at a two-day event in San Francisco. This summit brought together the leading Lung Cancer authorities in the world to answer the question: “If money were no object, what is the one thing you would do differently to change the landscape of lung cancer?” The answer was unanimous: Establish a centralized repository, collaboration and an institute. The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI) (pronounced “alchemy”) was born as a separate 501(c) 3 in January, 2008.
The Institute promotes scientific efforts to develop new, targeted treatments that hopefully someday soon, will lead turning Lung Cancer into a manageable chronic disease instead of a death sentence.
To this end, the institute is working to establish an international centralized database repository to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of new and more effective diagnostic and treatment options for patients. Personalized medicine.
“We are here because we find it unacceptable that Lung Cancer is so largely ignored,” says Bonnie. “I have had five people in my family get Lung Cancer … including myself. Four have died. I just lost my mom in April to recurring Lung Cancer. There is no cure yet and when you are diagnosed with cancer you have it forever. It looms over your life like the dark shadow on the scan. I want to make a difference for my children, my grandchildren and all the people out there that have a shadow on their lung and haven’t been to the doctor yet.”
What makes Lung Cancer so challenging to take on is that most people aren’t aware that Lung Cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women in the U.S. An estimated 165,000 deaths occur annually from Lung Cancer and death rates are rising in African-American and Caucasian women and both men and women who do not have a history of smoking—mostly women in their early 30s and 40s.
In response to these staggering statistics and her own inspirational survival story, Bonnie launched the foundation on March 6, 2006, the very same day Dana Reeve, a non-smoker, passed away from Lung Cancer.
Bonnie knows all too well the benefits of early screening firsthand, and credits early screening along with the intervention of her knowledgeable doctors at CHW Sequoia Hospital and UCSF’s Thoracic Oncology Program for saving her life.
“A CT scan saved my life. I paid for it myself and because of that I am still alive,” says Bonnie. She has vowed to spend all of her time fighting for early detection for Lung Cancer to have options just like the mammogram, PSA and colonoscopy. “We need to discover Lung Cancer as early as possible to save lives.”
Early detection, she says is the answer for all cancer. Caught at stage one, the Lung Cancer survival rate can be as great as 92 percent, a staggering difference between the 15.5% it is at now in later stages. The one year survival rate for stage IV is two percent. Although mine was Stage IIIb and I have reached five years as a survivor, I am one of the very lucky few.
Bonnie attributes her survival to the CT scan that brought her an “early enough” diagnosis, leading-edge treatment and her supportive “dream team” of doctors and family members.
“Once the shock was over and I began to accept the fact that I had Lung Cancer, I became very focused on recovering,” says Bonnie. “Although in the recesses of my mind I knew that Stage IIIb Lung Cancer was very serious, I was determined to beat it. I am very blessed to have a big and loving family but I felt that I needed to be strong for them…The only place I ever cried was in the shower. I knew that if I cried in front of them the dam would burst and I didn’t want to scare them any more than they already were. My little granddaughter, Bella, would always ask me if my “owie” was all gone. I would assure her that it was.”
These days, the foundation works tirelessly to raise awareness and educate the public about the benefits of early detection, last year unveiling a subway and bus advertising campaign in New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and Los Angeles generously donated by friends of the foundation and CBS Outdoor and repeating this year with the addition or Washington, D.C.
The foundation is also gaining international attention, with an impressive roster of supporters ranging from Deborah Morosini, M.D. and sister of Dana Reeve to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), who are leading legislative efforts to eradicate Lung Cancer. On November 15, 2009, the foundation held its third annual “Simply the Best Dinner Gala,” in San Francisco. Each year, the events have drawn crowds of more than 650 from across the country and around the world. This year’s event honored and paid tribute to the man who helped revolutionize television news-Peter Jennings, who sadly lost his battle with Lung Cancer.
“Our goal is to highlight creative, beautiful, wonderful, supportive and contributing people who happen to get Lung Cancer and leave this world too early,” says Bonnie. Lynn Sherr and Kayce Jennings joined the event to honor Jennings’s life as journalist and news anchor, husband and father, and one whom millions came to know over the years.
All of this keeps Bonnie hopping on planes from New York to Mongolia and around the globe again to raise awareness and gain support for her efforts to eradicate Lung Cancer. And, it’s not easy for a Lung Cancer survivor to fly. She speaks to Lung Cancer patients and their families every day. “Hopefully because they can talk to someone that has experienced what they are going through it brings them hope,” says Bonnie. When they do their research they find us (the foundation) and know that there are people out here that are working diligently to care for them and change their future,” says Bonnie. “As a survivor myself, I am proud to be doing this.
I have worked ‘gainfully’ all of my life. But, doing this work is so much more fulfilling. The ‘tangible’ asset is hearing the voice of someone newly diagnosed and knowing that I made them feel just a little better…..even if only for a moment.”
What inspires Bonnie the most are the patients, the survivors (although few) and their families.
“I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t tell you that I have had my days when I wonder what I have gotten myself into,” says Bonnie. “This is an almost around-the-clock job and if I wasn’t doing this I would have time to do all the things I dreamed about when I was working…to travel, time with my grandchildren, sitting on a beach watching the sun set…sleeping in. But when I speak to someone who is newly diagnosed and I hear the fear and terror in their voice, I know that this is what I am meant to be doing. How many times in one’s life does the opportunity to make a difference come along?
My love to you,
Bonnie J. Addario
