With the game as a backdrop, we use each survivor’s story to weave a broader narrative about lung cancer and the hope that exists for those battling the disease.”
Team Draft’s efforts are paying off. “The Super Bowl Challenge achieves some amazing things in terms of public awareness and changing perceptions about lung cancer,” says Dr. Ross Camidge, Director of Thoracic Oncology at Colorado University Cancer Center.
In addition to raising critical public awareness, the Super Bowl Challenge also raises funds for lung cancer organizations and treatment centers across North America. Participating survivors who raise more than $1,000 during the Super Bowl Challenge may commit 50% of the funds they raised to a lung cancer organization or cancer center of their choice while survivors who raise more than $5,000 will be given the opportunity to commit 80% of the funds they raise to the lung cancer organization of their choice. Of this aspect of the Super Bowl Challenge, Dr. Camidge says “you need somebody working on the national level. You need somebody working on the local level.
I think everybody wins.” He went on to encourage other cancer centers to “get behind” their survivors and “to do everything to work within a partnership with them to raise awareness and raise funds.”
“The Super Bowl and Pro Bowl are a fitting time to spotlight the crusade to change the face of lung cancer,” says Draft. “The level of commitment, drive and passion required to make it this far parallels the efforts required to get lung cancer research the next level.”
But for Draft, the Super Bowl Challenge is also intensely personal. “The day my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer, she made the decision to live each day to the fullest,” he says. “When you’re in what is literally a life and death struggle like Keasha and I were in, you realize that moments matter,”—moments like the trip Chris and Keasha took to Dallas to watch the Super Bowl shortly after her diagnosis. “It was something she had always wanted to do,” says Draft, “and being with her at that game is a memory I will cherish forever.” Now, Team Draft is giving other lung cancer survivors and their families the opportunity to create similar memories through the Super Bowl Challenge.
To learn more about Team Draft’s 2017 Lung Cancer Survivors Super Bowl Challenge, to sign-up to participate in this year’s challenge, or to make a donation in support of a participating survivor, visit https://www.crowdrise.com/2017SuperBowlChallenge