09.23.08
2nd Annual SPOKES FOR HOPE / SJR No. 23
The 2nd Annual SPOKES FOR HOPE, benefitting the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Wellness Community / Northern Jersey Shore, will be held on October 4th, 2008 at Pier Village, Long Branch NJ. (If I wasn’t already committed to the Bike MS NYC ride on 10/5, I might have done this one, even though it’s only a metric century.)
On Sept. 25, the New Jersey State Assembly will vote on Senate Joint Resolution No. 23, which would designate September of each year as “Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma Awareness Month” in New Jersey. This resolution would be a joint effort between the state and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to increase the awareness and understanding of blood cancers and encourage participation in voluntary activities to support education programs and the funding of research programs to find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. The joint resolution would request that the governor annually proclaim September as “Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma Awareness Month” in New Jersey and call upon public officials and New Jersey’s citizens to observe the month with appropriate activities and programs. LLS asks that its volunteers urge their assemblymember to vote yes on SJR No. 23.
“Remarkable progress has been made in treating patients with blood cancers. Sixty years ago there were few effective treatments for children or adults with blood cancer and the rate of survival was very low. Today, about 75 percent of children with acute leukemia and nearly 80 percent of children and adults with Hodgkin lymphoma are cured. Improved therapies and stem cell transplantation have dramatically improved survival rates for most blood cancers, and even patients with diseases resistant to treatment, such as myeloma, are benefiting from new drugs that are increasing the rate and duration of remissions.
Yet, an estimated 4,620 New Jersey residents will be diagnosed with a blood cancer in 2008. Every ten minutes someone dies from a blood cancer and an estimated 1,450 of New Jersey’s citizens will die from one this year.”