Atlanta Hawks To Honor Team Draft Co-Founder With Be Greater Atlanta Award During Nationally Televised Game

 ( ATLANTA, GA) – On Wednesday, April 3, 2013, nearly twenty lung cancer survivors, support teams, and doctors will be on hand when the Atlanta Hawks honor Team Draft co-founder and former NFL linebacker, Chris Draft, with the Be Greater Atlanta Award.  The award recognizes individuals throughout Metro Atlanta who are making a difference in their communities and will be presented to Draft during the Hawks game against the New York Knicks—a game which will be televised nationally on ESPN—in recognition of Team Draft’s national lung cancer awareness efforts. 

This Wednesday’s game is just the latest in Team Draft’s Survivor at Every Arena initiative.  Working with teams throughout the NBA, Team Draft is leading this national effort to have lung cancer survivors, researchers and doctors attend games across the country.  As part of Team Draft’s National Campaign to Change the Face of Lung Cancer, the Survivor at Every Arena initiative is designed to raise awareness, give hope to those battling the disease, and shine a light on the important work being done at cancer research and treatment centers around the country.

Team Draft, an initiative of the Chris Draft Family Foundation, is dedicated to raising lung cancer awareness and increasing badly needed research funding by shattering the misconception that lung cancer is a “smoker’s disease.”  The fact is, anybody can get lung cancer.  Yet, despite the fact that between 20,000 and 30,000 people who have never smoked—including Keasha and Abby—are diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States each year, the smoking stigma negatively impacts lung cancer research funding, which pales in comparison to funding for other major cancers and diseases.  Team Draft is out to change all that.  “If we can take away the stigma that says you have to be a smoker to get lung cancer, we have a real chance to educate people about the true nature of the disease,” explains Draft.

Since Chris and Keasha launched Team Draft at their wedding in November of 2011, Team Draft has been on a mission to tackle cancer.  Team Draft’s national campaign to raise public awareness and share the hope that now exists for those diagnosed with the disease has taken it to nearly 60 of the top cancer research and treatment facilities in North America.

“Our hope is not only to positively impact research funding, but to improve the quality of life for those affected by lung cancer,” says Draft.  “We aren’t fighting against lung cancer, we’re fighting for people.  That’s why we are leading this national campaign to change the face of lung cancer.”