President's Message

The year, 2008, will represent the fifth year that the Foundation has been in operation and I am in my eighth year, with no further evidence of  this esophageal cancer disease. We began the year by putting together, with the help of many people, our first calendar fund raising project. The calendar was named Happy Horizons by the artist and esophageal cancer patient Jill Freidman. Unfortunately Jill passed away before she could see the final compiled calendar. We will hopefully work with The Bridge, a government support center where Jill attended art classes, to put together a calendar for 2009 showcasing the art work of the students that attend the facility.

 In 2008 we plan to put structure to the Foundation by establishing a Board of Directors and various working committees namely; Administration, Medical Advisory and Fund Raising. These committees and the people involved will advise and handle the functions that we believe will help the Foundation reach its goals.

 I am proud to announce that Dr. Manjit Bains, Dr. David Ilson and Dr. Hans Gerdes all prominent physicians in their respective fields have all agreed to serve on the Foundation’s Medical Advisory Committee.

          The CD ROM we produced about Esophageal Cancer has been at the core of the material the Foundation has distributed and we will update this CD ROM in 2008 to include more quality of life issues for patient's use. Because of the significant cost in updating this CD ROM, we may place it on our web site so that patients can  reference any future updates.

  The book “100 Questions & Answers about Esophageal Cancer”  is authored by DR. Bains, Nurses Ginex and Jingeleski and myself. We have been asked by our publisher Jones & Bartlett to update the book which hopefully will be accomplished in 2008.

 We will market our third Radio Announcement on WCBS 880 Radio in the New York Area in the first half of 2008. The funds for this third announcement will, in part, come from the efforts of a care giver who will fund it in memory of his dear friend. We have, with the help of WCBS, developed a budget for airing these radio announcements in San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, Boston area and our fund raising efforts this year will be to fund these countrywide announcements.

 We continue to be a part of the Patient to Patient Volunteer Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and we will celebrate our 6th years of being involved in this program. Working with the Thoracic Surgical Department of MSKCC (6 surgeons) we have spoken to over 750 patients who have journeyed through this disease over the last six years.

 Overall we are very excited about what the Foundations has planned for 2008 and we can only hope., with God’s help, that we will continue to make a difference in patients lives when it comes to their journey through this dreaded disease. Hopefully with the radio campaign we will reach people and make them aware of this disease.

  We want to thank you for your continued support of our Foundation and hopefully together we can make a difference.                       

Respectfully submitted,

Bart Frazzitta

President

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