Many of us have been touched somehow by cancer, often through friends and family members who have been diagnosed with various forms of the disease. Decades of research have demonstrated the complexity of the mechanisms that produce the disease. While global research is vibrant and successful at identifying new solutions, the disease family defies simple solutions.
Over the years, customs have arisen as part of the standard care of cancer patients. In many facilities it is a custom for cancer patients to ring a bell on the hospital floor when they have completed various interventions that suggest they are cancer-free.
For fifty years, Georgetown has benefited from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Medical Center, an entity filled with advanced research programs attempting to improve the survival rate of victims of cancer of all types. Their work has led to many people “ringing the bell.”
With research funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH), cancer researchers are increasingly hopeful of their prospects for real change in the health outcomes for cancer victims. But NIH does not fund all the various types of inquiries that may pay off for patients in the future. Hence, fundraising activities to support research need to develop additional strategies.
We all have an opportunity to help in the coming weeks to be part of this fundraising.
The Bellringer bike ride bellringer.org is designed to raise money for the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center research activities. Each rider agrees to raise money bellringer.org/ride as part of their participation. Those who are not riding can donate funds to the riders. Others can volunteer to help support the riders on the day of the ride.
The Bellringer is structured and organized into three distances, 25, 50, and 100 miles. All riders will start early on Saturday, October 22. There will be stops along the way for food and Gatorade. There will be safety measures along the route to protect the cyclists.
If you already are registered to ride, good luck in your fundraising. If you’re not planning to ride, show your support to a rider who approaches you, or go to the bellringer web site to donate.
To get a sense of where our collective financial support will go, check out the videos on the Capital Breast Care Center, the Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers, and the video of Dr. Claudine Isaacs about care for the whole person. These can be found here.
All of us would like to be part of a world in which there are new approaches that reduce the incidence of cancer of all types, a world in which the whole population has access to effective antidotes to that family of diseases.
We can all do our part to help through Bellringer.
Great article just popped up ! Bellringers 2024 in October. Volunteer, ride , donate. Lombardi saves lives. GO BELLRINGERS !
As a Bell Ringer myself ( so far) invite you to join us on the Bikes!
Stay tuned!
Ray Mitchell
Thanks for posting. Worthwhile cause. Cancer touches us all. I’m thankful to Lombardi as it’s research is Keeping me alive for real! . Blessed with al my GU familia support and especially Lombardi . Go Bellringers.
PS I’m riding virtually so I don’t cream myself on a bike.
This research gets real (if not perfect) results. My mother died of breast cancer 27 years ago. I will never forget picking her up from a doctor’s appointment and her saying in a trembling voice “it’s very hard to cure what I have.” But today TV is filled with ads for drugs not available then that clearly add months to the lives of women who, like my mother, cannot yet have much hope for a cure. Let’s hope that won’t take another 27 years.
Yup. Hope progress will be exponential. Lombardi has been amazing.