ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS
Keith’s annual summer party will be Sunday August 26th at 3:00. There will be games and refreshments. Bring your favorite hors d’oeuvre to share if you wish!
Save Aug 30th for Win’s debunking. It will begin around 5:30 at Santa Cruz Yacht Club. Cost is $40 at the door. Please note: The club itself will be dark that day.
Come and participate in the sunrise rotary bike ride event for Leo’s Haven on Saturday Sept 29th or help with clean-up the week before the dedication on October 13th. See Doug for more details.
There will be an Area 7 Rotary mixer will be on Oct 9th from 5:00-7:00. There is a $5.00 fee for hors d’oeuvre and drinks. This event is just for Rotary members to get to know each other in our area.
Avenues of Service will be on Oct 4th from 4:00-9:00. The club will pay the fee of $49.50 if you wish to go. See Pam for more information.
Kent benedict spoke to us about a scholarship fund set up in the name of our dearly missed Dr. Stan Hajduk. To donate go to keck.usc.edu/giving/classof1968.
Friday Oct 26th will be the dinner for our own Michelle Bassi, this year’s woman of the year. Save the date!
Dian Corneliussen from Metavivor came to speak to us today about creating awareness for metastatic breast cancer. She is a local person who retired from the air force, after working on cases of people who did not return from Vietnam.
She developed metastatic breast cancer in 2004 and described the process of her own disease trajectory. She said often physicians do not wish to work with patients who have this diagnosis. She said because of the media many women blame themselves. Some of the facts she shared with us were that only 2% of the funding for breast cancer research is spent on research for people with stage IV cancer, when it is what kills 90% of patients with cancer. The average survival after diagnosis is 18-36 months. The 5yr survival rate is 22%; lifetime survival rate are 1-3%. 30% pf all breast cancer patients become metastatic. A new issue appears to be the higher numbers for women in 25-39 year old age group.
But there is still a bias against discussing this stage of the disease, which is why Metavivor was founded as non-profit to give people an avenue to donate towards metastatic breast cancer. 100% of every donation goes to research. Researchers apply directly to them for funds thru a scientific review board which includes patient advocates. They currently fund 46 researchers. They have funded almost $5 million in research grants.
Metavivor also serves as an advocacy group for patients through their peer-to-peer training and hiring an advocate to lobby in congress for metastatic cancer in general.
For more information go to www.metavivor.org