In this issue
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Vote now! VOICES photo and video contest

A celebration of survivorship and birthdays

Young Relayer helps raise more than $12,000 in honor of her brother

Local artist donates ArtPrize entry to American Cancer Society Hope Lodge

Common types of breast cancer

Notre Dame University researchers raise funds and awareness for ACS CAN

Linda Leibe: Health Care Reform is not an option
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Prostate Cancer Quiz

VOICES in the kitchen

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer: A celebration of survivorship and birthdays
On August 20, Indianapolis residents attended the twelfth annual Indianapolis Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC) Breakfast. This year, native Hoosier, 2009 Miss America - Katie Stam, welcomed the crowd and thanked them all for their dedication to the breast cancer cause.

She was then followed by an outstanding ACS volunteer and survivor speaker, Cindy Day, who happened to be celebrating her birthday that very day! Cindy has been an avid volunteer with ACS for more than seven years. She is now a two-time breast cancer survivor who was told she only had 18 months to live. Because of the progress made in the fight against breast cancer, Cindy has been able to celebrate several more birthdays following her cancer diagnosis.  

Cindy spoke about her involvement with the ACS Road to Recovery program which provides cancer patients free transportation to their chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “I joined ACS as a volunteer driver/coordinator for this program two years ago because I wanted to make a difference,” said Cindy.  “Doing something as simple as providing a ride to a patient may mean the difference between a patient receiving or not receiving critical treatments.”
                  
Cindy was honored to be the survivor speaker, and was thrilled to celebrate her birthday at the breakfast that morning. “The breakfast was the highlight of my day. And I finished the evening relaxing and making mosaic candles/frames with my daughter and eating some wonderful ice cream.”

As part of ongoing outreach to the Spanish-speaking residents, a leader in the Hispanic community then took to the stage to briefly address all the Spanish-speaking audience members in their native language. His involvement in the breakfast reinforced for all attendees that cancer affects all ages, races, and nationalities.

MSABC event specialist, Jodi Pickens, engaged the audience with a motivating call to action.“Birthdays are about two things – gifts and cake,” Jodi said.She joked that the American Cancer Society couldn’t be the official sponsor of birthdays without giving both cake and gifts to the attendees that morning. Guests enjoyed a free cupcake at each place setting, and the gift they were given was two-fold: an eco-friendly reusable Making Strides bag holding all the tips and tools for forming a Making Strides team, and the opportunity to save lives by raising funds for this event.

It was also a record-setting year with the most attendees ever at the Indianapolis breakfast – 422 people! For more information on how you can get involved with MSABC this year, visit www.cancer.org/strides.

Pictured: Top right - Cindy Day; Bottom right - Attendees enjoying MSABC Breakfast