Letter From Bonnie
Letter from Bonnie J. Addario
If I could, I would sit down and write a personal thank you note to each and every person who has joined my dream and this movement. And to those of you yet to come on board, I thank you in advance. Everyone is responsible for helping us start two foundations, generating awareness around the world for Lung Cancer and beginning the end of Lung Cancer right here in my home town of San Francisco. The reason I began this foundation is simple: When I was recovering from chemo, radiation and surgery I read somewhere that the survival rate of 15.5% has not changed in over 40 years. I found that completely unacceptable and began the charge to change it. It simply can NOT take another 40 years to make a difference.
I am constantly inspired by the courage, beauty, laughter and sheer “will to live” that emanates from our patients and their families. Our disease is a tough one and takes our breath away too often.
We took our grassroots 5k walk/run initiative from one in San Francisco to a dozen around the country each year. We launched ALCMI after over a year of thorough contract negotiations and back and forth Institutional Reveiw Board approvals with eight major medical institutions across the U.S. and Europe. We have billboards on buses about Lung Cancer from San Francisco to Boston. We have funded some very serious projects, and our name is in the New England Journal of Medicine along with some very prestigious investigators in our network. People ARE taking notice. People ARE listening. Young people are mobilizing for their friend Jill all over the world to BEAT LUNG CANCER. The world listens to its youth. Would I do this over again if I knew then what I know now?…I would love to say ‘yes’ but it is an impossible question to answer. What I do know is that we are here now and we plan to stay until our mission is accomplished. To be THE significant force in changing the survival rate for Lung Cancer in the next few years. It is my personal desire to bring HOPE today to all of the people who have Lung Cancer and the people not yet diagnosed—that it will not be another 40 years before we see change. If we do nothing over the next 40 years, we will lose 56,000,000 to Lung Cancer.
With love,
Bonnie J. Addario
