Charlotte, NC. When the sun sets in Uptown Charlotte, the Duke Energy Building will shine WHITE in honor of Lung Cancer Awareness Month. For the second year in a row, Team Draft has worked with @WellsLightsCLT to bring awareness about the state of lung cancer.  

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—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. “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.”

The Facts About Lung Cancer

For decades, the facts regarding lung cancer have been sobering:

•Anyone can get lung cancer.

•Over 60% of lung cancers are diagnosed in people who never smoked or in former smokers.1

•Lung cancer surpassed breast cancer as the #1 cancer killer for women in 1987.2

•Lung cancer kills more people than any other cancer3, and takes more lives than breast, cervical,

and prostate cancers . . . combined.4

•The five year survival rate for lung cancer is just 17%—a rate that has changed very little since the 1970’s.5

 

But now there is HOPE! The use of state-of-the-art lung cancer screening techniques is reducing mortality rates by 20% in some patient groups6 while cutting-edge team-based, multidisciplinary treatment procedures are improving the quality of life for lung cancer patients across the country. And thanks to advances in molecular tumor mutation testing, researchers and treating physicians are developing effective personal lung cancer treatments designed to extent and, ultimately, save lives.7 The key to making even greater strides is funding, but funding for lung cancer research is impacted by the “smoker’s disease” stigma.8 That’s why Team Draft is campaigning to change the face of lung cancer.

 

 

1 Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Women’s Health Policy & Advocacy Program, Out of the Shadows: Women and Lung Cancer (2010), at 4.

2 American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures 2011, at 15. 3 Id. 4 Out of the Shadows, at 4. 5 Cancer Facts & Figures, at 16; Out of the Shadows, at 9; American Cancer Society, Cancer Statistics 2009: A

Presentation From the American Cancer Society, at 22. 6 Cancer Facts & Figures, at 15.