We Were Invited To LA

In 2018, I attended the Hope Summit hosted by Lungevity Foundation. The CEO of the organization Stand Up 2 Cancer was the keynote speaker. She talked about the organization and what they were doing to move cancer research forward. It was a great speech and she talked about the telethon that they host every other year.

In her speech, she invited anyone in the audience that wanted to join her that September to attend the telethon in Los Angeles. We coordinated this with the team at Stand Up 2 Cancer and a group of us decided to fly out to LA to attend.

Flying out to LA

We were given tickets to attend and we made our own travel arrangements. I worked with a group of 6 other ladies and we planned where we were going to stay and who was going to share hotel rooms. It was nice to have a group chat to work out these details together.

We flew out to Los Angeles on September 6th and landed around 11 am. We hired an Uber and made our way to our hotel. We planned a dinner for all the lung cancer survivors that were attending and there were about 15 of us total.

An opportunity to Stand Up 2 Cancer

The telethon was filmed live on September 7th and it lasted about 1 hour. During the telethon, they highlighted survivors of many different types of cancer and there was music. They spoke about different clinical trials and also about the many sponsors of the organization. We did notice that there was a lack of lung cancer mentioned during the programming. Each of us was given a sign that said, “I stand up for...” and we stood up during the telethon to show the impact cancer has on all of us. I stood up for myself and my lung cancer sisters and brothers.

After the telethon, we attended the after-party where we got to eat and drink. There were a few celebrities there to take pictures with such as Stevie Wonder and Stand Up 2 Cancers spokesperson, Katie Couric.

Memorable time with my lung cancer family

While out in California we did some sightseeing. We went to Venice Beach and did a lot of walking. I was able to get a picture in front of a building on Venice Beach that is also on the front of one of my favorite artists' CD covers. We also went to Santa Monica and walked down the pier. We took pictures in front of the Ferris wheel and watched the entertainers sing. One, in particular, was playing the violin and sang the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol which was very lovely.

It was an exciting adventure to go out to California with my lung cancer family to attend the Stand up 2 Cancer telethon. I feel that this experience brought us all closer together and so when one of the ladies that went with us passed away it hurt that much more. I am thankful to have spent that time with her and I hold the memories close to my heart.