Fighting NET cancer
Dear Friends,
I will present the seventh Walking with Jane Scholarship at Westport High School tonight. I confront that performance, as I do every year, with very mixed emotions: I am happy we are funding one student so she can pursue her dreams; I am saddened that Jane is not here to help make those dreams reality. To say that, after 66 months, I still miss Jane as much as the day she died is an understatement. The tears just refuse to stop.
…we’re still working on it.
That scholarship is just one of the ways I try to keep the fight against NET cancer going. It’s designed to create medical professionals and researchers—and the teachers who will inspire the next generation of scientists the way Jane tried to throughout her life.
NET cancer funding progress
I personally donate the money for that scholarship every year—as I do for the smaller scholarship we give at Bridgewater State University, Jane’s alma mater. I wish NET cancer research was so well-funded this letter could be about raising money for those. But by the time those students reach their personal educational goals and are in a position to help, more than 60,000 NET cancer patients will have died, at a minimum.
The tears just refuse to stop.
Financially, NET cancer research is in far better shape than it was six years ago when Jane was first being diagnosed. That year, we spent less than $2 million on research. Last year, we saw that number finally top $8 million. That’s still a rounding error on what we spend on any one of the more well-known cancers, but it is progress—progress we desperately need to keep making.
Why increased funding matters
You see, the NET cancer problem is getting bigger. When Jane was diagnosed, we were diagnosing about 10,000 cases a year. Now it is over 15,000 a year. Medical professionals are now willing to say there are at least 230,000 undiagnosed cases out there in the US alone. And while we have a better understanding of the disease than we did in 2010, better diagnostic tools and a couple more arrows in the quiver to help patients deal with the symptoms, we still have nothing that looks like a cure.
That’s still a rounding error…
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston has been at the forefront of the research that has both improved patients’ lives and our understanding of the disease. Three of the treatments currently on the cutting edge of NET cancer care were developed there. DFCI doctors Matt Kulke and Jennifer Chan—Jane’s oncologist—were asked to edit an edition of Hematology/Oncology Clinics that focused exclusively on NET cancer this winter.
What our funding has done
When we finally find a cure, it will likely grow out of the research your donations to Walking with Jane for my Marathon Walks have made possible. Since 2011, my Walks have created over $77,000 for NET cancer research at DFCI. The teams I’ve led have raised over $173,000. People like you have been the key part of that effort. Our average contributor donates just $25. Yet last year, I was the eighth best fundraiser for the Walk. Our team also finished eighth.
…we still have nothing that looks like a cure.
But we are way behind where we were a year ago in terms of fundraising. I’ve had a difficult winter and spring, culminating in an old friend being diagnosed with brain cancer just a few weeks ago. My winter fundraising letter made it to the Internet, but never to the US Mail. Our other efforts have encountered bad weather and worse timing.
Help a funding comeback
We still have three months, though, to change things. We have $5000 in matching money available between now and September 1—which means your tax-deductible donation can be matched dollar-for-dollar by an anonymous donor to effectively double what you give. Your employer may also have a program to match your donation, which could mean even more money to fight NET cancer through your effort.
Our team also finished eighth.
And we’ll keep doing all we can to raise money in other ways: The Walking with Jane Miniature Golf Open at Caddy Shack in Dartmouth is August 4; The Hank Landers Charity Golf Tournament at the Bradford Country Club in Haverhill is August 6; if you shop amazon.com, you can have them donate a part of what you pay to Walking with Jane just by asking; and I’ll be at craft shows and yard sales at every opportunity between now and October.
Every dollar–every penny–counts
Once a week, I visit Jane’s grave. Every week, I tell her we haven’t found the answer to NET cancer yet, “but we’re still working on it.”
We have $5000 in matching money available…
Some day, I want to tell her we have the answer. You can help make that day happen by donating as generously as you can today. Every dollar counts—and every penny will go to NET cancer research.
Pax et lux,
Harry Proudfoot
Chairman, Walking with Jane
Captain, NETwalkers Alliance Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk Team
Walking with Jane, Inc. is 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable corporation
organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
