Amgen started the BFC initiative in 2005 to promote awareness of a variety of cancer prevention and survivorship resources. The BFC is comprised of four cancer-related nonprofits, Prevent Cancer Foundation, Cancer Support Community (CSC), Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) and National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS). The BFC partners participate in the AToC race each year to distribute valuable resources and information at the Breakaway from Cancer booth and walk with cancer survivors and caregivers as part of the Breakaway Mile marches.

Prevent Cancer Foundation Staff, Cheryssa Jensen & Carolyn Schmidt travel w/ Breakaway from Cancer at the Amgen Tour of California

The AToC kicked off the race with festivities in Escondido, California on Friday, May 10. The day included an excellent gala celebration, a boa constrictor named Ruby from the San Diego Zoo and an introduction to all 16 teams competing in the race. Emcees Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, notable commentators for the Tour de France, introduced accomplished riders from around the globe including AToC winners, Tour de France finalists and Olympian medalists.

The first stage of the race began and ended in Escondido on Sunday where the cyclists competed in a 102.6 mile course containing an 11,132-feet elevation gain. The second stage’s course was even longer at 124.3 miles and ended in a steep climb toward the finish line in Palm Springs where it was a hot and dry 106 degrees. The eighth stage concludes the race on Sunday, May 19 in Santa Rosa. Follow this exciting tour at www.amgentourofcalifornia.com or on twitter @AmgenTourofCali or @BreakawayCancer.

Along with the four BFC partners, the Prevent Cancer Foundation will be traveling with the Breakaway from Cancer tent, as part of the Lifestyle Festival, located near the end of each stage. If you’re in California come visit us at the Breakaway from Cancer tent to receive a variety of free resources and fun giveaways like sunglasses, key chains and frisbees! I applaud these amazing athletes and the inspiring cancer survivors who are working as a team to Stop Cancer Before it Starts!

(From L. to R.) Stu Baker, Prevent Cancer President and Founder Bo Aldigé and Bob Baker during the Amgen Tour of California

It all started with the offer to share my story with the Prevent Cancer Foundation about how I overcame colon cancer and use bicycling as an awareness-raising tool. I spent half my life battling Inflammatory Bowel Disease before I got cancer and didn’t get back into cycling until after I had my entire colon removed and replaced with an ileostomy. That was nearly ten years ago and I’m thrilled to have regained my health and be back in the saddle. What followed was an invitation to attend the Tour of California and since I have family there, I had to go.

After a visit with Mom for Mothers Day, my brother Stu, his wife Molly and I headed up to Santa Rosa for the first day and immediately got swept up in the excitement of the Tour with front row viewing at the Breakaway from Cancer hospitality tent. During the race we got to mingle with other cancer survivors and walk in the Breakaway from Cancer Mile to celebrate survivorship. What an honor to be part of such a moving experience right before the build up to the finish of the race. To be in such proximity to world-class cyclists, hundreds of survivors and all the people who work so hard to prevent cancer and advocate for cancer survivorship…somebody pinch me!

The next three days followed suit as we traveled around and got more familiar with where to be as the racers flew by. We saw some starts, climbs and all four finishes and even got to go up on the podium stage for one of the races. In between the start and finish we had fun visiting the Lifestyle Festival looking for swag, getting autographs and pictures and enjoying the festive atmosphere. Thanks for a fun and meaningful adventure; hope we can make it next year!

Editor’s Note: Bob Baker is a cancer survivor, advocate and avid cyclist.

This year, you can help us choose the four individuals that we will honor along the Amgen Tour of California professional cycling route.  Just visit Breakaway from Cancer’s website to read each nominee’s story, and be sure to select your favorite from each host city. Winners will be given VIP access at the 2012 Amgen Tour of California and will be honored on stage. They will also lead the Breakaway Mile, a walk which honors cancer survivors worldwide, through their community. For those of you who will be in California between May 13th and 20th and would like to participate in a Breakaway Mile can register here.  Be sure to sign up now, as space is limited to the first 150 registrants per city.

We also wanted to introduce you to Bob Baker – a Prevent Cancer Foundation cancer champion!  Many labels can be applied to Bob – husband, father of three, cyclist.  Each is admirable on its own, but it is his fourth label, cancer survivor, that makes everything else all the more impressive. Bob was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, a painfully chronic disease that produces open sores in the intestine, at the young age of 15 and, like many with UC, eventually developed colon cancer. Twenty-seven years after his UC diagnosis, Bob underwent surgery to have his large intestine removed, and now lives life fully with a permanent ileostomy.

Since his complete recovery 8 years ago Bob has volunteered his time as a patient advocate sharing his story in the hope that it educates and inspires. His involvement includes: visiting members of Congress and the President at the White House, modeling in a colon cancer awareness calendar and runway fashion shows, leading support groups, visiting and counseling patients, public speaking and serving on the board of directors of The United Ostomy Associations of America, Inc (UOAA). Seeing the need to help new patients through recovery from ostomy surgery, Bob created and produced the DVD “Living with an Ostomy” which is widely used to address some of the common fears associated with this life saving surgery.

Bob also uses cycling to raise awareness about colon cancer, competing in races such as The Phoenix Tour, a grueling 3000 mile tour that takes place over 3 months.  Bob uses every opportunity to spread awareness about Colon Cancer, in hopes that others will take their health into their own hands and get screened.

Bob is a true Breakaway from Cancer champion – making a difference in prevention policy, education and survivorship every day!

As part of the campaign, we will be honoring Individuals from four communities in California during the2012 Amgen Tour of California.  You can now nominate yourselves or others to be a Breakaway from Cancer^® Champion.

Four individuals – one from each of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California communities of Santa Rosa, Livermore, Clovis, and Los Angeles – who have made a positive impact and acted as an inspiration to those affected by cancer within their community will be selected as the Breakaway from Cancer Champions.

The Breakaway from Cancer Champions will be honored and have special access at the 2012 Amgen Tour of California (May 13-May 20). Full criteria and information about nominating or becoming a Breakaway from Cancer Champion is available at http://www.breakawayfromcancer.com/champion.

Nominations are open from March 2 – 23, 2012.  We hope that you can honor the work of someone who has made a difference by nominating someone from these communities.

And while we can only highlight individuals from these four communities during the tour in May, we know that there are champions across the country that have made a difference through advocacy, education and fundraising.  If you are not from one of these four California communities, we’d still like to hear about the cancer champions in your life.  Please share any stories that you’d like to with me by email.  We’ll highlight the good work of our Prevent Cancer champions throughout the year and include them in our digital and print communications outreach. We look forward to hearing from you!

About the Amgen Tour of California

The 7^th annual Amgen Tour of California will be held from May 13 – 20, 2012. It is America’s most successful cycling race, and is one of the only road races in the country to be listed as a UCI 2.HC event on the international professional cycling calendar. Hundreds of elite athletes from across the globe gather each year to bring an end to cancer.

About Breakaway from Cancer®

Founded in 2005 by Amgen, Breakaway from Cancer is a national initiative to increase awareness of important resources available to people affected by cancer – from prevention through survivorship. Breakaway from Cancer is a collaboration between Amgen and four nonprofit partner organizations: Prevent Cancer Foundation, Cancer Support Community (formerly known as The Wellness Community), Patient Advocate Foundation, and National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.

We’ve celebrated four cancer champions so far this tour, with one more to go on Sunday. They are inspirations to their community and to all of us, and they represent not just themselves but the HUNDREDS of cancer survivors and caregivers that we’ve spoken with in the Breakaway from Cancer booth in the five cities we’ve visited so far. In our Breakaway mile cities, five along this year’s tour route, we are joined by an army of survivors, their loved ones and caregivers, and proudly walk with these men and women in our Breakaway from Cancer mile down the course and across the same finish line that the cyclists cross. It is an honor to be part of this team, with survivors and their loved ones, and with our national non-profit partners that offer expertise and resources to the public.

I had the pleasure of seeing a familiar face today, Lee, and his wife who I first met in Philadelphia two years ago when he visited the Breakaway from Cancer booth. Lee is an avid cyclist, a cancer survivor, and he often uses the resources of Breakaway from Cancer.  Lee is just one example of why we are out on the road, educating the public about the resources that we can offer in the cancer continuum.

I can’t wait to get back out on the road again tomorrow in Solvang. Thanks to all of our cancer champions, our hosts cities, and to everyone that has taken time to talk with us along the way!

The event featured many booths with health resources, give-aways, musical entertainment, a bike raffle, free kayak rides and the Prevent Cancer SuperColon was onsite to raise awareness and spotlight Colorectal Cancer in the Latino community.  Dave Cortese, County Supervisor,  was the starter for the walk and is an ongoing advocate of the work Latinas Contra Cancer does in the community.  This California non-profit was founded in 2004 by Ysabel Duron, a San Francisco newscaster and cancer survivor.  Since then they have worked to increase access to quality care, to decrease mortality and improve the quality of the health care experience.  They also provide education and outreach services and partner with health care institutions to bridge the gap through culturally competent outreach and medical care.  Ms. Duron comments that, “Talking about cancer won’t kill us, the silence will. We confront this deadly disease very publicly to give support and inspire hope.” 

Watch the YouTube video!

The exhibit is part of the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s National Colon Cancer Awareness Campaign that is sponsored by Amgen Oncology.

A memorable part of this experience are the individuals that we meet along the tour route – passionate individuals, many of whom have been caregivers, advocates and cancer survivors. In five of the ATOC communities we honor one of these many individuals as our “cancer champion.” While so many of the people we meet are cancer champions, we have the pleasure of receiving nominations from five California communities and highlighting one individual from within that community. Prevent Cancer asks you to read the stories of our nominees and vote on which individual you think embodies the characteristics of a cancer champion – someone who has made a difference in their communities, in research funding, advocacy and the lives of others.

Visit Breakaway from Cancer and vote for the men and women that you think most deserve this honor!

Breakaway in Colorado!
We’re excited to announce that Breakaway is adding another event to its portfolio. Amgen’s Breakaway from Cancer  will be the lead sponsor of the 45th annual Bob Cook Memorial Mt. Evans Hill Climb cycling race, which is presented by Team Evergreen Racing and will take place Saturday, July 24, beginning near Idaho Springs, Colorado. Cyclists who register to participate in the 2010 Mt. Evans Hill Climb race will be encouraged to raise funds for the four non-profit cancer support organizations that benefit from the Breakaway from Cancer initiative.  If you are near the Idaho Springs area, or have friends or family, we encourage you to take part and support the Foundation and our partners.

Other Breakaway Events
There are other events year round that we participate in through this initiative to raise awareness of the services and materials our organizations have to offer. We are pleased to have a presence at LiveStrong Challenges, and the Dempsey Challenge charity bike rides and 5ks in 5 cities. The first challenge was in Seattle on June 19^th. We gave out many Prevent Cancer Foundation Guides to Preventable Cancer—and talked to people about their risk for cancer. Even though it was typical rainy Seattle weather, many people still came out!

Please visit the Breakaway from Cancer site for more information on events in your area.

Photo Credit: Andrew J. Tao

The discussion, appropriately titled Striking the Balance: Community Experts Come Together for High-Level Dialogue on Cancer Care, covered issues of concern across the spectrum beginning with prevention and carrying through access to quality care and survivorship.  Our moderator, Susan Dentzer, led our expert panel through a lively discussion which identified unmet needs, opportunities to improve prevention and comprehensive care, and moved towards some recommendations to address these needs and opportunities through policy change and leadership.

The conversation helped elevate opportunities in prevention, and represents just the beginning of a collaboration of  5 partners playing different roles in the delivery of cancer care.  I am certain that this collaboration and shared interest in improving the quality of prevention and care, will ultimately lead to positive changes in policy.  A full video of the panel discussion will be available on this blog, soon. So, watch this space!