Editorial

Thank you is all one can say

The Team Sarcoma 2007 Initiative is an internationally coordinated set of events to raise awareness of sarcoma and raise funds to support sarcoma research, clinical trials, and patient and family services. It has required hundreds and hundreds of hours of work over the last 10 months to form the teams and plan the 56 events that currently will be held during July 14-22, 2007 to make up the 2007 Initiative. There are scores of sarcoma patients, caregivers, survivors, family members who have lost a loved one to sarcoma, oncologists, nurses and other members of medical teams from all over the globe who have reached out a hand to help — amid very busy schedules, amid treatment, amid the effort of living day to day without a friend or family member who lost their battle with this wretched disease.

Most of the work of this Initiative goes on behind the scenes. Some people participated in making the translations of "A Forgotten Cancer" into seven different languages — Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Spanish, some helped form one of the 48 teams that are now in place, some took responsibility for the logistics of one of the 56 Team Sarcoma events, some made flyers, some prepared press and media releases, some made packets of materials that will be handed at at these events — the list of things to do goes on, seemingly endlessly. But, someone has always been there to do what needs to be done. Everyone who has helped, has made a difference. All have shared the common vision of increasing awareness of sarcoma internationally.

We now have teams in Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and 21 states in the United States, making this truly "An International Sarcoma Awareness Week". The participants on the "core" Team Sarcoma who will ride and walk through the hills and valleys of the Lake Champlain area of Vermont are a small microcosm of the overall event — they are coming from 9 different countries as well as 12 states in the United states and represent 9 sub-types of sarcoma.

There is still much to be done before and during July 14-22 and the ultimate success of many of the outdoor events depends upon local weather conditions on the day of the event. However, looking back over the past ten months, I can only say "Thank you for everything you have done" to everyone involved in this Initiative. The events planned so far lead me to project that we will definitely have well over 1,000 people participating worldwide in the 2007 Team Sarcoma Initiative. As is stated in A Forgotten Cancer, "Can you imagine our impact if we'd have 10,000?"

Come join us. Visit the Team Sarcoma Initiatives events web page to learn more. Be one of the voices that will be be heard.

Best,

Bruce

Bruce D. Shriver, PhD

Editor-in-Chief, ESUN