News Anchors Unveil "Stand Up to Cancer" Initiative

This morning, evening news anchors from ABC, NBC, and CBS announced the initiative  "Stand Up To Cancer", which is a collaborative fundraising effort by all three networks.  This morning, Katie Couric , news anchor of CBS, Charles Gibson of ABC, and Brian Williams of ABC, made the announcement on ABCs "Good Morning America", NBCs "Today Show", and the CBS "Early Show".  You can see the video of the GMA segment here.  "Stand Up to Cancer" is a multi-faceted project, which includes a television special, and an interactive website http://www.standup2cancer.org/getinvolved which enables the visitor to make donations and get involved in a variety of ways.  Couric, who has lost a husband and a sister to cancer, originally conceived "Stand Up To Cancer"

On the evening of September 5, ABC, NBC and CBS will each donate one hour of airtime for a star-studded special program.  The special, which will be shown simultaneously on all three networks, will feature live performances of performance artists.  Also celebrities from the worlds of film, television, sports, journalism, and music will be working the phone bank, taking calls from viewers who wish to donate. Additionally, "Stand Up To Cancer" will auction off video celebrity chats with film and television stars.  Couric, Gibson, and Williams are also expected to present segments about cutting-edge cancer research.  70% of the funds raised will go to "dream teams" of the best and brightest scientists, who will be performing collaborative research to find treatments that are innovative and groundbreaking.

Calling in a donation on September 5 is not the only way to get involved http://www.standup2cancer.org/getinvolved  in "Stand Up To Cancer"

• Become a member  Register with the site to receive updates, and to be part of an upcoming program where you earn points for doing things online.  Points can be redeemed for prizes.
• Start or join an existing SU2C Team  It can be you and your best friend, or your whole department at work; there are teams of all sizes
• If you are a corporation, start a Corporate Challenge
• The Stand is a Facebook application you can join.
• The Constellation is where, for a donation of $1 or more, you can launch a star in honor of a loved-one affected by cancer.  I launched a star in honor of my mother who died in 1995, and I am going to launch another one and dedicate it to my dad, who survived both prostate and bladder cancer.  But I have at least 6 or 7 more stars to launch, so touched I have been by cancer in my family.  I also lost a first cousin at 47 to colon cancer last year, and almost all my aunts to breast cancer.
  

And that is just the point Katie Couric made in her appearance with Brian Williams and Charles Gibson on ABC's Good Morning America -- that we are all touched by cancer. You can't walk into a room of people anymore and find one person who hasn't been touched by cancer--  a relative, a friend, a coworker, or him/herself.  In developed nations, cancer is second only to heart disease as the leading cause of death.  The opening sentence of SU2C's mission statement sums it all up:  "Here we stand, on the verge of unlocking the answers that will finally conquer the devastation that is cancer".