I’m all about anything that has to do with getting rid of cancer. So what I like about the V Foundation mission is it’s victory against cancer, and I like that we invest in young investigators the future, and that we invest, particularly in translational research, the kind of research that’s gonna make a difference in patients lives in the relative year term. Cancer is not going away as fast as we would like it to go, and so we’re gonna need new investigators in the future and we have to invest in them now because it’s these young people that are going to have the really innovative, disruptive ideas that are gonna take us forward. You know, I tell everybody that I take care of now as a patient that yesterday’s
[00:01:00] research is helping us to treat you today. Tomorrow’s research, today’s research is gonna be tomorrow’s therapy. So I need everybody at the table now, young investigators to be able to push this mission as it embarks on the 30th anniversary. Of course, in the best of all worlds, we could have a 30th
[00:01:30] anniversary and declare victory over cancer, but we’re not quite there yet. But when I think back to 1993, when the V Foundation was founded, and I think about what’s changed in so many cancer types, just my own, uh, cancer that I watch, breast cancer, you know, the, the insights that we’ve made, the changes that we’ve seen in our therapies in terms of being more personalized. We’re targeted therapies. Um, we’re trying to make sure that you have the right kind of therapy for the right person at the right time rather than the maximally tolerated therapy. These are huge
[00:02:00] inroads that have been made, and not just in breast cancer, but in so many types of cancers’ On The Next 30 Years: I hope that we’re successful that we will see even more survivors from cancer. I hope with time we’ll be able to think about some of the inroads that we’ve made in treatment and think about how we can bring them back to prevention Because of course there’s no cancer, like no cancer. Victory over cancer for me means either somebody’s never [00:03:00] diagnosed with cancer, of course, they’ll never know that they avoided it, or that perhaps they’re able to live beyond the cancer.
[00:03:06] And I always joke, go on and die of a heart attack at the age of 90. Everybody is at risk for cancer. Everybody can suffer from cancer. And so we’re in a position where we need everybody at the table to be able to solve the problem of cancer, and we also need to be in a position where everything that we’ve learned is able to be deployed to all individuals who suffer from cancer. So I think the Stuart Scott Fund to me really personifies our commitment to every
[00:04:00] person getting the treatment that they need at the right time, and every individual being able to come to the table to try to combat cancer. The wine celebration has been such a signature event for our organization, and so next year for the 25th anniversary, I think we’ll be able to first of all, celebrate what we’ve been able to accomplish over this quarter of a century. But more importantly, I think we’ll be able to
[00:05:00] recommit to what needs to come next. And so I’m very much looking forward To getting together to again, celebrate those successes and think about the future. I’m somebody who has the
[00:06:00] opportunity still to take care of cancer patients, and I am inspired every single day by the people that I have the chance to take care of both the patients and the families, those that surround them, that they teach me so much about how individuals can face, but probably one of the most adverse times in their lives, but come out of it with grace and happiness and commitment to a better life going forward.
