The 2008 International Sarcoma Awareness Week

An ESUN Article

Bruce Shriver, PhD
Team/Event Coordinator, Team Sarcoma Initiative

Mary Sorens
Infrastructure Coordinator, Team Sarcoma Initiative

The 2008 Team Sarcoma Initiative: A Brief Summary

The Team Sarcoma Initiative grew to include more than 8,000 people in 2008. This number more than doubled last year's 3,400 participants and far surpassed our goal of 5,000 participants. The following graph shows the rapid growth in participation in the Team Sarcoma Initiative since its inception in 2003.

Growth Trend in the Team Sarcoma Initiative

A wide variety of activities were held around the world to increase sarcoma awareness, and many of the teams raised funds to support sarcoma research, clinical trials, and patient and family services.

There were Team Sarcomas in 14 countries and 27 states in the United States this year. All but 9 of the 76 Team Sarcoma events occurred during International Sarcoma Awareness Week, July 12-20, while members of the core team cycled along the Danube River in Germany and Austria. The core team came together from 11 countries and represented 11 types of sarcoma.

The variety of this year's events and teams was remarkable, as was the number of participants in them. There were a few events with only one participant, and there was a race in Mexico with more than 1,900 participants. People ran, golfed, knitted, rode horses, played bridge, walked, fished, and skated. There were educational events, and for the first time this year there was an online event and a "virtual" event, where people made donations for luminaries and lit them wherever they chose throughout the week. The list of organizations involved is truly impressive and it is given at the end of this article. Many of the teams had press coverage and several had live TV coverage. Click here to view or download a slideshow of photographs from the events.

As was mentioned in the editorial in the June 2008 issue of ESUN, the Team Sarcoma Initiative required thousands of hours of work to form the teams and plan the 75 events that took place. There were scores of sarcoma patients, caregivers, survivors, families who have lost a loved one to sarcoma, oncologists, nurses and others from all over the globe who reached out a hand to help. They did this amid very busy schedules. We want to thank everyone who made all of this happen.

Here are links to three articles about the Team Sarcoma Initiative that contain quotations from sarcoma patients, survivors, caregivers, and physicians.

Medical Centers and Concerned Groups Unite in the International Team Sarcoma Initiative

Patients, Survivors, and Caregivers Worldwide Band Together to Fight a Rare Cancer

8,000 People Join the Team Sarcoma Initiative to Fight a Rare Cancer

Enhancing the Team Sarcoma Initiative Infrastructure and Visibility

Those who have been involved with Team Sarcoma over the past few years have probably noticed that things are changing. In order to continue to meet the needs of thousands of people and to accommodate future growth, our team of volunteers has stepped up its efforts.

The Team Sarcoma Initiative now has a dynamic website with regularly updated and informative content. The site uses weblog technology that allows us to post immediate updates in a simple format. Visitors can subscribe to the site, and they can use the "e-mail" function to forward posts to their friends. Event reports with photos have already been posted for nearly all of the 2008 events.

Team Sarcoma also has a significant presence on Facebook, a social networking site used by people around the world. More than 300 people have joined our Facebook Group, where we post news and event announcements. Many of our members are young people whose lives have been greatly affected by sarcoma. We want them to know that the Team Sarcoma Initiative is a movement that can help them, and we want them to know that their involvement can make a difference.

We are so grateful to everyone who contributed to the success of this year's Initiative. Thousands of individuals and organizations have chosen to do something positive in the face of difficulty during International Sarcoma Awareness Week. In the coming months, we anticipate that more people will step up to plan 2009 Team Sarcoma events in additional states and countries around the world.

Volunteers are already working to coordinate and communicate next year's global Initiative, which will occur during the week of July 18-26, 2009. We hope that you are excited about joining us in the monumental effort to involve more than 10,000 people in sarcoma awareness events. Every team, large or small, helps us reach that goal.

About the Team Sarcoma Initiative

Since its inception in 2003, the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative has coordinated the Team Sarcoma Initiative. The effort is achieved through collaboration with numerous individuals and organizations that share a similar vision.

Official Team Sarcoma events need to be registered with us before they take place. It's a very simple process. Send us a note as soon as possible telling us that you'd like to organize a local Team Sarcoma event and we'll be happy to provide more information.

2008 Team Sarcoma Initiative events were formed by the dedicated groups and organizations below.

Medical Centers

Arizona Cancer Center
Centrum Onkologii - Instytut im. M. Skłodowskiej-Curie
Emory Winship Cancer Institute
Essen University Hospital
First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University
Fox Chase Cancer Center
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
Hillman Cancer Center
Huntsman Cancer Institute
Joan Karnell Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Menorah Medical Center and the Mid-America Sarcoma Institute
Mexican National Institute of Pediatrics
National Institute of Genomic Medicine
NYU Langone Medical Center
Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung
St. Vincent's Health
The Children's Hospital at Montefiore
The Hospital for Sick Children
TianJin Cancer Hospital
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) School of Medicine
University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
West German Cancer Center

Advocacy Groups

Adult Bone Cancer Survivors
Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation
Annie's Fund
BeatSarcoma
Brian Morden Foundation
Das Lebenshaus
Grind for Life
iCureASPS (CureASPS International)
Jennifer Hunter Yates Sarcoma Foundation
Karen Wyckoff Rein in Sarcoma Foundation
Kids With Cancer Society
Leiomyosarcoma Direct Research Foundation (LMSdr)
Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative
Miles Alpern Levin Fund
Overcoming Cancer with Research (an EC-funded project)
Peter Skelton Sarcoma Research Foundation
Reid R. Sacco Memorial Foundation
Sarcoma UK
Stowarzyszenie Pomocy Chorym na Miesaki "SARCOMA"
Veterans for Sarcoma
We Will Never Give Up Foundation (Aqui Nadie se Rinde)
Za novi dan (For a new day)

Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative

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