(Atlanta, GA) – November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and Team Draft is honoring the occasion with a new public awareness video. On Thursday, Team Draft co-founder and former Atlanta Falcons linebacker, Chris Draft, who lost his wife, Keasha, to lung cancer in December 2011, will announce the debut of the video, which is designed to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about this misunderstood disease. After the announcement, Team Draft will head to the Georgia Dome where lung cancer survivors Samantha Mixon and Kristen Carlton will join us on the field before the game.

Team Draft’s new video highlights the lack of awareness about lung cancer. It features Draft asking people on the street which cancer is the biggest killer of women, men and overall. While most people said that breast cancer kills more women, that prostate cancer kills more men, and that skin cancer kills more people overall than any other cancers, the fact is lung cancer takes more lives than breast, cervical and prostate cancer combined and kills more people than any other cancer. The video is designed to raise public awareness by shining a light on the true facts about this deadly disease and inviting people to share those facts. To see the video, share the facts, and donate to support the National Campaign visit www.teamdraft.org.

Thursday night’s games is just the latest in Team Draft’s Survivor Series. Working with teams throughout the NFL, NBA, NHL, and NCAA, 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 Series is designed not only to create a unique experience for participating survivors, but perhaps more importantly, to raise awareness on a local and national level by using each game and each survivor’s story to weave a broader narrative about the state of lung cancer and the hope that now exists for those battling the disease.

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. • Lung cancer surpassed breast cancer as the #1 cancer killer for women in 1987. • Lung cancer kills more people than any other cancer , and takes more lives than breast, cervical, and prostate cancers . . . combined. • The five year survival rate for lung cancer is just 17%—a rate that has changed very little since the 1970’s.

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 groups 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. The key to making even greater strides is funding, but funding for lung cancer research is impacted by the “smoker’s disease” stigma. That’s why Team Draft is campaigning to change the face of lung cancer.

About The Chris Draft Family Foundation and Team Draft The Chris Draft Family Foundation is a 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation dedicated to strengthening communities by empowering families to live healthy lifestyles. The Foundation focuses on several initiatives with overarching themes that stress the importance of education, healthy lifestyles, character development, personal responsibility, self-discipline, and physical fitness. To learn more about the Foundation, please visit www.chrisdraftfamilyfoundation.org.