An extraordinary line-up of actors, musicians, athletes and journalists have banded together for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), the groundbreaking initiative aimed at raising funds to accelerate innovative cancer research bringing new therapies to patients quickly that will saves lives now.

Stand Up To Cancer will return to primetime TV on September 10, 2010, at 8PM EST & PST / 7PM CT. The one-hour fundraising event will be simulcast live and commercial-free on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Bio, Discovery Health, E!, G4, HBO, HBO Latino, MLB Network, mun2, Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, The Style Network, TV One, and VH1.

CHICAGO BLOOD CANCER FOUNDATION’S “OUT FOR BLOOD” BIKE RIDE – PEDAL TO CURE LYMPHOMA, LEUKEMIA, AND MYELOMA

Join Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation’s “Out For Blood” Team for the North Shore Century Bike Ride on Sunday, September 12, 2010 and raise money for blood cancer research.  Every dollar raised by or donated to riders will go to blood cancer research!   Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation is underwriting the costs of registration for the first 50 riders committed to raising money for blood cancer research who register on-line for the ”Out for Blood” Team.   ”Out For Blood” Team riders are requested (but not required) to raise $1,000 or more for blood cancer research.  Those raising $100 or more will received a t-shirt and Riders who raise $350 or more also will receive the coveted “Out For Blood” Jersey.  Apart from participating in a scenic and fabulous ride, your efforts will help to cure blood cancer.

Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation will have an on-site greeting area.  The ride begins at Evanston Township High School at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning with flexible morning start times.   Ride a mile, a 100 miles, or somewhere in between.  Riders can choose from a variety of routes:  25-mile; 50-mile; 62-mile; 75-mile, and 100-mile.  Free refreshments will be available at the registration area before you begin your ride.

Non-riders may participate by forming on-line “Virtual Vampire Teams” and qualify to earn t-shirts and jerseys.  Riders and non-riders alike are welcome to participate in the Post Ride Celebration.  This is a great event for an extremely important cause!  More important, all of the money you raise or donate will go to blood cancer research.  Let’s pedal and cure blood cancer.

Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation is committed to curing lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma; ensuring that cutting edge treatments and world class care and physicians remain available to area patients battling blood cancer, and addressing issues of concern to patients and families impacted by blood cancer.  Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization led exclusively by volunteers impacted by blood cancer.  Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation invites you to join it on the superhighway to curing cancer.  It is proud to partner with Imerman Angels.

For information and on-line registration, go to http://outforblood.kinera.org.  You can contact Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation at (888) 792-9992 or www.chicagobloodcancer.org.

I don’t know about you, but I felt like all of the crazy, zaney, hilarious misadventures of my life came to a screeching STOP! when I was diagnosed with cancer. Rather than waking up after a night of hard partying to find a cold, half-eaten slice of pizza in my purse (true story), I was spending my days engaged in deep soul-searching sessions and hour-long conversations about the meaning of life with everyone from my doctor to my cousin to the person in the stall next to me in the ladies’ room. At night, I logged some serious hours researching doctors, hospitals, and my type of cancer. I listened to endless hours of Musak while hold with the insurance company, took lots of naps, and just generally worried about the future. Clearly, this was not how I envisioned life at 26.

Looking back on it, there were entire months after my diagnosis where I didn’t laugh once. Not once! (Ok, so maybe I chuckled at some lame joke while watching Everybody Loves Raymond in the hospital waiting room, but that was more of a pity laugh than a true guffaw).

Of course, cancer takes a while to process—and rightfully so. But the one thing I needed most after all that processing was something to distract me from cancer and allow me to be a goofy twenty-something again. I’ve noticed that I, as well as most of my peers, deal with the ups and downs of life by enlisting a little humor or sarcasm. It doesn’t mean that we’re the jaded, misguided, “me” generation that the media claims we are – it’s just our way of coping.

Surely, I thought, my fellow young adult cancer survivors would be out there laughing in cancer’s face, right? (After all, we can’t expect grandpa to be crackin’ jokes about how testicular cancer has turned him into the Uni-Baller, or a five year-old to come up with a more original line than, “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”). As it turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong! Of the many cancer websites, discussion boards, and books I’d read, only one tried to incorporate humor. Other websites on laugh therapy seemed like they were written by our parents, or copied out of those joke books you buy at the check-out line of grocery stores.

So, I started collecting some funny tidbits here and there. I want to share those with you now, in the hopes that someone out there will see them and break that awkward, depressing waiting room silence with a good chuckle, or at least find some pleasant distraction from the heaviness of it all–even if it’s just for a few minutes. After all, if cancer has taught me anything, it’s that every minute counts. So why not spend ‘em laughing?

Below are some links to what I found. If you have any others, please share them, too.

Fainting Goats

The Half-Million Dollar Shot

Emoticon War: SuperNews!

Gladys on the Ellen Show

Awkward Family Photos: Curly

Awkward Family Photos: Anything for the Shot

Dramatic Chipmunk

Baby Beyonce

Contributed by, survivor, Amanda Pope.

Check out this article from the Daily Mail about a young cancer survivor who was cured in 3 hours!

Diagnosed with bone cancer, Darya Egorova faced the very real threat of having a leg amputated.

Less than a year later though, the six-year-old is back on her feet and free of the disease – thanks to a revolutionary procedure that took only three hours.

She has become the first person in Britain to have a cancerous bone removed, treated with very high doses of radiotherapy and reinserted all in the same hospital.

Her family, who are from Russia, were distraught when they were told the options available in their home country for their daughter, who loves sport and dancing.

But a charity stepped in to fund the new procedure in Britain.

Last night Darya’s mother Irina, 41, said: ‘Given the surgical options my daughter was offered outside the UK, what surgeons have done is truly a miracle.

‘We came here full of fear but we received such kindness and generosity from the British people. We are eternally grateful.’

Darya was able to attempt to walk with crutches only two days after the operation, and left hospital within a week. Until now, doctors have had to send bone tumours by motorbike to another hospital to be treated before putting them back.

Now, the Harley Street Clinic in London has the facilities to carry out the full operation in one place. The move shortens the procedure by at least an hour and means less risk of complications and pain.

Darya, who was diagnosed with cancer last autumn, could have had the tumour removed in Russia-but this would have meant a larger piece of bone being removed, leaving her ankle immobile.