As part of breast cancer awareness month, HudsonAlpha has launched a crowdsourcing campaign to raise $25,000 for the HudsonAlpha Breakthrough Breast Cancer Fund.
The Breakthrough Breast Cancer fund is raising at least $250,000 by Nov. 17 to fund the next breakthrough in breast cancer.
The crowdsourcing campaign includes an emotional video of three individuals who share their personal experiences with breast cancer and a plea for people to do something now to find the next major cancer discovery.
- Beth Parsley was diagnosed on May 5 of this year. The past few months have been mentally, physically and emotionally draining for Parsley. Since her diagnosis, she has had to give up some of the simple things in life such as spending time in the water. “I can’t go to the pool, I can’t go to the river, I can’t go to the beach,” Parsley said. With support from her friends and family, she is pushing through this trying time in her life. “HudsonAlpha is fighting for my life, fighting for a cure for me, and fighting for better treatment options,” Parsley said.
- Christopher Russell is someone who has been around breast cancer most of his life. At the young age of 10, Russell watched his mother battle breast cancer. He said she was always a trooper. “My mother did beat breast cancer,” Russell said. However, the cancer returned and she passed away a few years later. “We don’t have to let this destroy our families,” Russell said. “We don’t have to let this end our lives, we can do something about it.”
- Joy Agee is a doctoral student studying triple negative breast cancer in the lab of HudsonAlpha President Rick Myers. At the young age of 24, Agee’s best friend died from breast cancer. “I didn’t think people our age were diagnosed with breast cancer,” Agee said. She was first diagnosed after her 21st birthday. She went into remission, but the cancer returned shortly after graduating from Alabama A&M University in 2008.“Watching her go through that made me realize that I wanted to study breast cancer,” Agee said.
Watch the stories and donate at https://www.crowdrise.com/hudsonalphafoundation.
The success of the crowdsourcing campaign and the Breakthrough Breast Cancer fund will be celebrated Monday, November 17 at the annual Tie the Ribbons luncheon, at which time world-renowned geneticist Mary-Claire King, Ph.D., will be honored for her discovery of the BRCA1 gene and its ability to predict hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
Click to donate to the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Funding Campaign!
