Mesothelioma patients and their families confront the malignant asbestos-caused cancer every day but yesterday all across the US many people got their first introduction to the often fatal illness, including those in a position to do something about it. These included everyone from Congressional representatives in Washington DC to college students in Florida and Arizona who participated in fundraising runs to support mesothelioma patients.
Started by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) in 2004, Meso Awareness Day event organizers have steadily scaled up their efforts to familiarize the general public about this deadly type of cancer caused by asbestos exposure primarily in the workplace or asbestos-containing products in the home. About 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.
MARF is the only national non-profit organization entirely dedicated to ending mesothelioma by funding research, providing education and support for patients and their families, and by advocating for federal funding of mesothelioma research.
With dozens of events occurring around the nation and more scheduled for this weekend, here are a few highlights of Meso Awareness Day 2013 thus far:
- MARF members held a Congressional Briefing at 10 a.m. yesterday in the Rayburn Office Building. Their presentation was called “Mesothelioma: Unknown, Underfunded and Incurable.”
- A large group of MARF supporters gathered at New York City’s Rockefeller Center for the taping of the Today Show were visible in their bright yellow shirts. Today Show Al Roker briefly spoke with the group .
- The Baltimore Orioles, during their game against the Toronto Blue Jays, recognized Meso Awareness Day by featuring information about the Meso Foundation on the jumbotron screen.
Kazan Law is proud to be listed on the Annual Donors page on MARF’s website. We are pleased to know that through donations from the Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons, Greenwood, Oberman, Satterly & Bosl Foundation, Inc., we are part of who MARF is talking about when they state:
“Because of your support, the Foundation funds the highest-quality, peer-reviewed research, provides education and support to patients and their loved ones and leads advocacy efforts to increase federal funding for research and increase awareness of mesothelioma.”
We believe that thanks to MARF’s efforts like Meso Awareness Day, mesothelioma will not be unknown, underfunded and maybe not even incurable in the future.