ESPN reporter and cancer survivor receives a very public emotional tribute

​ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe, who continued to work while battling melanoma, received a surprise tribute during the Jan. 20 Oklahoma-Baylor baskeball game in Waco, Texas.

Before the start of the second half, broadcasters, coaches, players, and fans participated in a tribute organized by Coaches vs. Cancer. They held up signs with the words "I Fight For" on them, on which they had written the names of loved ones. Many of them had written Holly's name on their card, including ESPN broadcasters Fran Fraschilla and Bob Wschusen. Holly's reaction is what you would expect.

Watch here.

Read more about her cancer journey.

This week, Jan. 20 - Jan. 26, is Coaches vs. Cancer Suits And Sneakers Week, when NABC coaches trade in their dress shoes for sneakers to raise awareness about the fight against cancer. This season, Suits And Sneakers Week is supporting childhood cancer research, services, and prevention efforts.

*Re-posted from MySocietySource.

National Hot Chocolate Day

ACS Ambassador NeNe Leakes on Dr. Oz

​

The star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta discusses caregiving

ACS Ambassador NeNe Leakes and her husband Gregg, a colon cancer survivor, discussed the stress of caregiving on The Dr. Oz Show on Jan. 17. 

Watch and share this poignant and funny 7-minute segment, which includes a look at a healthy colon and a colon with cancer. Dr. Oz shares a recipe for a "colon health smoothie," discusses risk factors, and stresses the importance of getting screened for colon cancer. 

The beginning of the segment features a clip of NeNe and Gregg's caregiver video that can be found among our caregiver video resources on cancer.org (scroll way down on the page). In it, NeNe says "being a caregiver is one of the hardest jobs . . . I was very stressed out."

NeNe is best known for appearing on the reality television series The Real Housewives of Atlanta as an original cast member, and for her recurring character Roz Washington on the Fox comedy-drama series Glee. 

She also played Rocky Rhoades as a series regular on the sitcom The New Normal on NBC until its cancellation in 2013. She has also participated on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice and ABC's Dancing with the Stars. She made her Broadway debut as Madame in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella in 2014 and in 2015 played Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago. She also had a clothing line on Home Shopping Network before launching her SWAGG boutiques in select cities across the country.

*Re-posted from MySocietySource.

National Croissant Day

Expert shares how ACS can use design thinking to advance health equity

Recording of webcast now available for volunteers and staff

 A recording of a livestream event in January is now available for volunteers and staff who are interested in advancing health equity and social change using design thinking principles. The 50-minute webcast features George Aye, a nationally-renowned leader in design thinking and social sector innovation. 

Design thinking encourages organizations to focus on the unmet needs of the people they serve by employing empathy, ideation, and experimentation in their services, products, policies, and strategies. This presentation will help volunteers and staff uncover hidden opportunities for innovation in their daily work, shape positive change, and advance health equity. 

ACS and ACS CAN are intentionally integrating health equity principles into our research, programs, services, and advocacy through a 3-year grant with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

If you would like more information about this webcast or to learn more about how ACS and ACS CAN are advancing health equity, please email the Health Equity Team at healthequity@cancer.org.

*Re-posted from MySocietySource.

Relay Storytelling with Deanna

This Relay storytelling video features Deanna whose smile lit up Relay For Life events and her survivor story touched lives.

* Shared from National Relay For Life. Download on the Brand Toolkit or view on YouTube.

2019 in Review: New cancer drug approvals

Chemotherapy is one of the most powerful tools we have to treat cancer, and research continues to find new chemotherapy drugs as well as new uses for existing ones. At the same time, newer types of drugs are being developed that work in different ways to attack cancer cells. These types of treatments include targeted therapy, which aims to more precisely identify and go after cancer cells while doing less damage to normal cells, and immunotherapy, which uses the body's own immune system to help find and destroy cancer.

Before any new drug can be sold in the United States, it goes through an approval process. The FDA evaluates evidence from testing to decide whether the drug's benefits outweigh any known risks. The FDA also provides doctors and patients with information about how to use the new drug safely.

In 2019, the FDA approved several new drug treatments for different cancer types that American Cancer Society editors believe will make a significant difference.

Bladder Cancer

Balversa (erdafitinib) is the first targeted therapy approved for bladder cancer. The FDA approved this drug in April for adults with advanced bladder cancer with a mutation in the FGFR3 or FGFR2 gene, and that has gotten worse after treatment with chemotherapy. The FDA also approved a test to look for these gene mutations.

Breast Cancer

In March, the FDA approved the first immunotherapy treatment for breast cancer. It's a combination of Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and Abraxane (nab-paclitaxel) for people with advanced triple negative breast cancer. There are few other treatments available for this aggressive cancer type.

In May, the FDA approved the targeted therapy Piqray (alpelisib) for a type of breast cancer caused by a certain inherited genetic mutation. It's the first treatment of its kind for this cancer type.

Head and Neck Cancer

The immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) was approved in June as a first-line, or initial, treatment for people with advanced head and neck cancer. Keytruda is also used to treat people with several other cancer types.

Lung Cancer

The FDA approved Tecentriq (atezolizumab) in March as the second immunotherapy drug for people with advanced small cell lung cancer, and the first for use as part of first-line treatment. Tecentriq is also used to treat people with several other cancer types.

Lymphoma

In June, the FDA approved the first antibody-drug conjugate to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the US. An antibody-drug conjugate is a targeted drug combined with chemotherapy. The targeted drug finds the cancer cell and then delivers the chemo to destroy it. The new drug, Polivy (polatuzumab vedotin-piiq), is approved to be used along with the chemotherapy drug bendamustine and a rituximab product.

Multiple Cancer Types

For just the third time, the FDA approved a drug to treat tumors with a specific genetic change regardless of cancer type. Rozlytrek (entrectinib) was approved in August for adults and adolescents with tumors that test positive for NTRK gene changes, which can help cancerous tumors grow.

*Shared from cancer.org.

Spring Fundraising Challenge (for Fall Relays)

2020 Relay For Life Spring Retention Challenge Overview 

Cancer doesn’t take days off. Neither do we. That’s why it’s time to rise to the challenge – our spring fundraising challenge – and raise at least $200 by February 29 for your Relay For Life event.

Incentive Eligibility:

• Participants are eligible to win the super soft long-sleeve t-shirt if they raise $200 from the time their 2020 website launches until February 29th.
• This is open to offline and online donations made via your RelayForLife.org event website, your Relay For Life Facebook Fundraiser (through Relay Dashboard), or the ACS FUNdraising App. To be counted, all offline donations need to be credited by Saturday, February 29, 2020, at 11:50 p.m. CST.

[NOTE: once a participant meets the challenge by raising $200 by 2/29, it could take up to 5 days to receive their redemption email.]

What can you do?

• Since word-of-mouth is our most powerful tool, discuss the challenge with your local ELT’s and team captains and encourage them to register and invite others to join their team.
• Send the local event email to your event participants through the EMC. [Named: SPRING 2020 Retention Challenge Local Email]
• Send a SMS text (see below) to encourage your event participants to register and start fundraising,
• Send via SlickText to your respective lists at a time when people aren't sleeping.
• Recommended Message: Relay: Raise $200 by 2/29 and earn a super soft T-shirt. Want to make fundraising easier? Download our FUNdraising app! Learn more: http://www.cancer.org/app
• Don’t forget to share the local social media posts on your regional and local event channels. 

*Shared from the Brand Toolkit for Fall Relays. Get the Challenge Toolkit (Note: Does not apply to all Relays. See you Staff Partner for questions.)

Happy Lego Day

Data Privacy Day

Today is Data Privacy Day. In honor of today, we recommend all Relay and American Cancer Society volunteers to take the IT Security and Acceptable Use Policy training from the Volunteer Learning Center. The training will walk you through the American Cancer Society policies and ask you to electronically sign and agree to the policy. Remember, we want to honor our volunteers and participants privacy not sharing medical information or contact information (emailing from the website and BCC are great tools to keep emails private).

Partnership Agreements

Partnership agreements are crucial when starting planning for a Relay event.  Agreements help set expectations, discuss communication styles, clearly define roles, ensuring that the planning process is as smooth and enjoyable as possible. We strongly recommend all Event Leadership Team members have a Partnership Agreement.

Here is what I recommend including in a partnership agreement:

• Best way to communicate (text, email, call, in-person, etc.)
• How change will be communicated (i.e., if you said you were going to do something and now you aren't able to do it for whatever reason, how, when, and to whom that will be communicated to insure the strength of the event.)
• Volunteer responsibility and expectations (from both involved parties)
• Ways the volunteer enjoys being recognized (public thank yous, notes, favorite drink, etc.)

Here are so resources to get you started: 

• https://connect.relayforlife.org/resources/item/16/90
• https://volunteerlearning.cancer.org/mod/scorm/view.php?id=2448
• https://volunteerlearning.cancer.org/enrol/index.php?id=489
• https://volunteerlearning.cancer.org/course/view.php?id=488

Letter writing campaign

Relay like it’s 1985 - let’s go old school. Letter writing is a proven way to fundraise. Pull out that holiday card list again and write letters, sharing “Why you Relay” and ask for donations. Be sure to include both the link to your Relay website and your mailing address for donations. Add a little extra incentive by including a self-addressed stamped envelope. Send to family, friends, co-workers, and businesses. Need letter writing ideas? Check out this Relay Connect Forum!

*Guest blogger Cynthia Dickson posted on the Facebook Relay For Life Community.

Changes coming to Artwork Builder in Brandtool Kit

During the first half of 2020, Artwork Builder will be moving from Flash to HTML5. As a result, all Artwork Builder templates will be migrated over to the new format on a rolling schedule created to cause the least disruption to end-users. 

As part of this change, the Marketing team will take the opportunity to revamp and improve some of the template offerings for programs like golf and galas.

What does this mean for Artwork Builder end-users? 

• Prior to the program migration dates, end-users are strongly encouraged to complete all in-progress work they have in Artwork Builder and download the PDF to their computers. In-progress work is expected to be migrated over but, as a precaution, please complete and save your work.

• There will also be Artwork Builder blackout dates leading up to each program migration. During the blackout dates, templates and saved artwork for that program will not be available. 

• Please share this important update with any external users you work with.

This change applies to Artwork Builder templates only and does not impact Brand Toolkit assets. If you have questions, please send them to Brandtoolkit@cancer.org.

Tentative Migration Schedule for Relay For Life: 

• Last day to complete work in progress and download PDF's: June 28, 2020
• Blackout dates (templates and saved artwork not available): June 29 - July 5, 2020
• Templates available again: July 6, 2020

*Re-posted from MySocietySource.

National Spouses Day

Relay Rewards continues for the 2020 event season

Relay participants encouraged to start earning Relay Rewards today!

Once again, Relay For Life participants have the opportunity to earn Relay Rewards - points for fundraising and for taking specific actions that lead to more fundraising and engagement with the American Cancer Society.

The Relay Rewards incentive program allows our Relay participants to earn branded merchandise that recognizes their hard work and commitment to the Relay For Life movement.

The point system is mostly driven by individual fundraising. Volunteers earn one point for every dollar raised that is credited to their personal fundraising page on their event website. Volunteers can also earn up to 50 additional points by taking specific actions.

Once a volunteer has reached 250 points, the lowest point total needed to redeem for Relay Rewards, they will receive an email letting them know of their achievement and how to log on to ShopRelayRewards.org to check their point balance, browse, redeem, and earn more points.

This Relay Rewards program has many benefits to the organization and Relay For Life volunteers, including:

• Building affinity and loyalty to our organization and Relay For Life
• Motivating volunteers to raise more funds by not only incentivizing them to reach the next level of the program, but also to reach goals within each level of the program
• Rewarding volunteers for their fundraising success and taking actions that help to increase fundraising
• Giving volunteers the flexibility to spend their points however they wish, whether it's on one item or multiple items
• Allowing volunteers to rollover any leftover points if they register for the next year’s event by the end of the calendar year (Jan – Aug events). Fall event participants (Sept. – Dec.) have until April 1 to register for the next year’s event.

For more information, please reference visit ShopRelayRewards.org.

*Re-posted from MySocietySource.

Chinese New Year (Year of the Rat)

National Compliment Day

Two ACS videos up for Sharecare Awards - your action requested!

​Vote once a day to help us win!

Two American Cancer Society videos have been selected as finalists for a Sharecare Award. Your votes can help bring home the “People’s Choice” award. The Sharecare Awards, in association with The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (The Emmy’s), honor excellence in health and wellness productions and programming.

ACS is a finalist in three of 15 categories. Between now and Friday, Jan. 31, the public is invited to vote for their favorite, which will determine the winner of the 2020 People’s Choice Sharing Care Award. Each finalist’s submission is available for viewing at sharecareawards.org/voting, where people can cast their vote for one finalist in each category per day during this period.

ACS is a finalist in the behavioral health category for the Caregiver Self-Care: Stress Management video that is a part of our Caregiver Support series, written by ACS and produced by Dan Hodlick, ACS Studios. The goal of this 16-part series is to provide educational support to caregivers as they assist with the everyday physical care needs of cancer patients and provide self-care techniques to improve their quality of life. Please visit this site to vote for the caregiver video. 

In the cancer and innovation category, Virtual Reality for Pediatric Cancer Patients, a video written by ACS and produced by Zuza Films, showcases an innovative, relevant, and impactful virtual reality experience that allows kids going through treatment at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to get a respite from the pain and anxiety caused by treatment protocols. For more than 20 years, virtual reality simulations have been used in a clinical setting as a method of distraction to help address anxiety, pain, and the loss of control people feel during painful medical procedures. Please visit the cancer category and the innovation category to vote for this video. 

Remember, you can vote once in each category each day from now until Jan. 31!

Finalists and winners for each category will be honored at the 2020 Sharecare Awards event on Thursday, March 26, in Atlanta.

*Re-posted from MySocietySource.