We reached a whole lot of people about neuroendocrine tumor cancer and carcinoid syndrome yesterday. The Fall River Herald News ran a story on Walking with Jane’s efforts in raising awareness about NET/CS and our plans to participate in the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk on September 9.

The piece ran on the front page of the second section of the paper, which has a print circulation of just under 15,000. Given that readership is generally three times the circulation number, about 45,000 people were potentially exposed to our message yesterday.

That does not include the number of online readers. Over 70 people who read the piece online forwarded to their Facebook friends and the like. The piece generated more than 80 hits on our walkingwithjane.org website–about double what we have been averaging this month so far.

The story was also broadcast nationally when the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation picked the story up and distributed it across their network of friends, NET patients and NET researchers.

And now there is a video of me talking about NET and the Marathon Walk. It is pretty stark and my communications students will know everything I did wrong. But…

That makes a small dent in our goal of  reaching three million people about NET/CS this year.

We took another significant step in that direction today. I have just formalized an agreement between Walking with Jane, the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk, and the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation. Under the agreement, Walking with Jane and CFCF will have a single team: Caring for Carcinoid Walking with Jane. The money raised by that team will all be earmarked for the Walking with Jane Dybowski Fund for Neuroendocrine Cancer. Caring for Carcinoid and the Program in Neuroendocrine and Carcinoid Tumors at Dana-Farber will publicize the team on their sites, as will we.

Now we really need people to take part in the Walk September 9. If you can do all–or part–of the Marathon Walk September 9, please go to the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk site and sign up for our team. And if you can’t take part in the walk, please make a contribution. No gift is too small or insignificant. Every penny brings us a step closer to a cure.

On Wednesday morning I will meet with Phil Devitt, who heads our press kit group, and Katie Dupere, one of the group’s writers, to talk about other ways to reach people about NET/CS and further publicize the Marathon Walk. We will talk especially about this year’s releases for national media to coincide with NET Cancer Awareness Day on November 10. If you have ideas for stories for that package or contacts that could help get those stories published, please contact us at walkingwithjane@gmail.com.

We are also working on scripts for potential public service announcements and other ways to  get the electronic media involved in telling the NET story to a broader audience.

The good news is we are making some progress. But there is still much to be done. We can’t do it without you.