We have all been ravaged by cancer at this point in our lives either by fighting it and winning or seeing others do so or succumb.
For those who may not know, 25 years ago the St Baldricks Foundation was started, arising out of the P&C Insurance Industry. It is one of the best things P&C does. St. Baldrick’s Foundation does one thing - fund childhood cancer research - and they do it well.
St B's was started to fill a funding gap and find cures for cancer, especially childhood cancers. For adults the average age of a diagnosis is 67. For kids it is 6. Ouch. And if you needed yet another reason to dislike Big Pharma, about 60% of all funding for drug development in adult cancers comes from them. For kids? Almost none, because childhood cancer drugs are not profitable. Ouch.
"Curing childhood cancer is the equivalent of curing breast cancer in terms of productive life years saved." – Dr. Eugenie Kleinerman, Children’s Cancer Hospital at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Now thousands of folks beyond the insurance industry put their egos aside and have their heads shaved around this time of year to support the kids. It's just hair. It grows back. We raise a few funds and tilt a few pints. And no surprise, a ton are First Responders.
(Shout out to my friends in Madison, Wisconsin. Will be with you heroes again this year in spirit. That crack you heard is my knees, as I kneel and say a prayer for you all.)
Hope you will check out the Events page on St B's website. NY and Chicago do quite well, but I am thrilled to see how widespread these events have become. Cheers to you Syracuse, Reno, Romeo, Coral Springs, Green Bay and Hong Kong - all leading events presently.
Thank you to the more than 842,000 men, women and children who have volunteered since St. Baldrick’s began.
If you happen to be in Estero, Florida on March 12th and want to see the Everblades hockey hooligans do their thing at the Hertz Arena, stop by and say hello. Like many other knuckleheads, I am a Knight of the Bald Table and very proud of it. Have been growing out my mop for months now. Looking forward to that coldness on the top of my head again, but the warmth in the heart. (I do hate to lose the eyebrows, too, but...kids...with cancer.)
If not me, please skip a lunch for the kids and put your $10 on another head.
Cheers.
