Team Fighting Melanoma

Celibrating National Melanoma Awareness Month!

This May my friends joined me in the fight to stop melanaoma. The dollars raised went to develop melanoma research.  I want to thank each and every one of you for helping me stand-up to melanoma. Our race raised nearly $100,000.  And I have to say with a little help from my friends (especially my husband Mike) I was the top fundraisers for this years DC Miles for Melanoma and Team Fighting Melanoma came in third for team fundraising efforts. My son Sergei continues his winning strick finishing first again for his age group and coming in 7th out of 600 runners. Pretty impresive if I do say so myself. We  also sported the MRF GetNaked# campaign shirts to raise awareness of the importance for annual skin screening.

This year we have had many things to celebrate and most of all the Surgeon General took notice and recognize the impact that melanoma has on America.

Skin cancer has increased 200 % since 1973 with the dawn of the tanning beds and the hope of acquiring a healthy glow.  

There is a 1 in 50 lifetime risk of developing melanoma; nearly 77,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with melanoma in 2014, resulting in almost 10,000 deaths costing the US health care system an estimated 8.1 billion.

It is going to take a village to stand up on this issue and make a difference this Surgeon General’s Call to Action is the first step but it will take help from you, state and local grass roots efforts, and organization such as the Melanoma Research Foundation to get the job done.

Mike, I and Sergei want to thank our village for coming together to bet this once and for all.