Ignite Change by Joining the Movement!
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Empower the FIERCE SISTERS
FIGHT OVARIAN CANCER at the
LA Half-Marathon Charity Challenge
LA Half-Marathon: Sunday, March 16, 2025
Walk, Run, or DONATE to the cause
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All tax-deductible contributions through our platform support ovarian cancer research at the
UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation (JCCF).
Thank you to everyone who participated in the LA 1/2 Marathon Charity Challenge 2024. Thanks to your steadfast support and the extraordinary generosity of our angel donor, we have achieved our goal of $100,000 for the third consecutive year! Whether you walked, ran, or generously donated to the cause, your contributions have made a meaningful impact. Your contributions are driving crucial ovarian cancer research at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation. Together, we're advancing early detection and treatment. Your support means everything to us.
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It's crucial to understand that ovarian cancer, being the deadliest of all gynecological cancers, lacks early detection tests. This is why our mission is so vital. We are raising funds not only to support treatments but, most importantly, to enable early detection of ovarian cancer.
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Every tax-deductible contribution made through our platform is directed towards the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation (JCCF) to advance ovarian cancer research. Our primary objective is to bolster the essential work of Dr. Konecny at the UCLA Translational Oncology Lab. Dr. Konecny's research focuses on pioneering early detection methods and exploring innovative targeted treatment therapies, including PARP-Inhibitors. Your support plays a crucial role in advancing this vital research.
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Early detection can make an incredible difference; the 5-year survival rate with early detection stands at an empowering 92%. In contrast, late-stage detection has a survival rate of just 29%. Sadly, approximately 60% of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage today.
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Last year, thanks to your incredible support and generosity, we raised over $120,000. This year, let's come together and strive to surpass that amount. Your contribution plays a pivotal role in changing these statistics and giving hope to those affected by ovarian cancer.
Please click the "DONATE" button and join us in our fight for early detection and treatments that can make all the difference in the world.
Together, we can improve the odds and save lives.
SUPPORT OUR CAUSE
To make a contribution on the official Team Fierce Sisters page at Haku Sports, please visit https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/teams/fierce-sisters-fight-cancer. Click the "Donate Today" button to make your donation. If you would like to join the team, or would like to support Team Fierce Sisters by creating your own fundraising page, please contact RJ DiCamillo at rdicamillo@mednet.ucla.edu.
ABOUT
THE FIERCE SISTERS
The journey started the day Elisabeth received a Stage IVb Ovarian Cancer diagnosis. From symptom to advanced high-grade serous carcinoma, it was a 22 terrifying days. Soon after, both Elisabeth and her sister Susan were identified as BRCA1 mutation carriers. Susan underwent preventive surgeries only to discover that she, too had the beginnings of this disease. It is hard to express the despair and powerlessness one feels to learn that there is no "cure" for ovarian cancer. Only 17% of advanced-stage patients are still alive by year five, and of those patients who do survive, there is a 90-95% recurrence rate. Also, BRCA1 carriers have a very high lifetime risk for breast and ovarian cancer, and there is no early detection test.
Their despair turned to hope when they met Dr. Gottfried E. Konecny, an internationally recognized leader in ovarian cancer research, a physician-scientist, and a professor of medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Given his extensive research, Dr. Konecny put Elisabeth on a life-saving clinical trial of PARP-Inhibitors, a new targeted drug treatment known to not only extend the life of advanced ovarian cancer patients. It also holds the promise of treating ovarian cancer for the first time as a chronic disease rather than as a death sentence!
Our goal is to support Dr. Konecny's vital research at the UCLA Translational Oncology Lab in developing a method for early detection and to support his research into PARP-Inhibitors and other novel targeted treatment therapies.
Our inaugural campaign took place during the LA Half Marathon on November 7, 2021, during which we not only met but exceeded our initially modest fundraising goal. Thanks to the incredible support of our friends and family, we were able to raise over $110,000.
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The momentum of our cause continues to grow, and we invite you to join us as we work towards raising essential funds for the betterment of the lives of our sisters, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, aunts, and girlfriends.
In our second year, Team Fierce Sisters Fight Cancer achieved the remarkable feat of being the top fundraiser in the LA Half Marathon Charity Challenge of 2023. Your unwavering commitment and hard work enabled us to surpass our previous year's accomplishment by raising over $120,000 for Team Fierce Sisters Fight Cancer.
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We cordially request your generous contribution to "FIERCE SISTERS FIGHT CANCER" for the upcoming LA Half Marathon on March 16, 2025. Your support is paramount to our mission, and every donation counts.
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With heartfelt appreciation and deepest gratitude,
Elisabeth and Susan
ABOUT
THE RESEARCH
Early detection of ovarian cancer results in dramatically better outcomes for patients and is thus a major research focus of Dr. Gottfried Konecny, Professor of Medicine and OB/GYN at UCLA.
With early detection, the 5-year survival rate is 92% while late stage detection in ovarian cancer has a survival rate of just 29%. Unfortunately, today about 60% of ovarian cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage.
In his research towards developing better systems for early detection, Dr. Konecny is focusing on DNA that is circulating in the blood stream and, more specifically, how that DNA “fragments” when a patient has ovarian cancer.
With a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary effort involving cancer genomics, biostatistics, computational biology, oncology, pathology as well as national and international collaborators, Dr. Konecny has designed a clinical trial that will test the blood of a patient diagnosed with ovarian cancer, before any treatments have been administered (such as chemotherapy or radiation). Once the patient has received treatments and is, hopefully, without ovarian cancer the patient’s blood will be tested again – all towards the hypothesis that the fragmentation in the blood has tell-tales signs when a patient has ovarian cancer.
Developing a non-invasive protocol for early detection is tremendously important and exciting. Philanthropy plays a vital role in advancing such far-reaching, paradigm-changing research.
The Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation (JCCF) was founded in 1945 by a group of volunteers dedicated to cancer research at UCLA. Their idea, using funds raised from private sources to invest in the work of promising young cancer researchers, resulted in the Seed Grant Program, which has helped the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) break new ground in the quest to defeat cancer.
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Although seed grants remain an important part of JCCF's mission, the Foundation today also supports numerous high-priority, multi-disciplinary cancer research efforts focused on rapidly translating discoveries made in the laboratory into improved screening, treatment and prevention.
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As the single most important vehicle for raising private funds for cancer research at UCLA, JCCF:
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Provides funds to help JCCC researchers pursue promising new projects and enhance established programs in areas ranging from cancer survivorship and clinical research to the development of targeted therapies
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Has a Board of Directors comprised of respected business and community leaders who are dedicated to raising money through major and planned gifts, annual and tribute gifts, and special events and community activities
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Is a fully licensed 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation that exists for the express purpose of raising and distributing funds to support leading-edge cancer research at JCCC
JCCF spends 90 percent of total donations directly on cancer research and cancer-related programs. The remaining 10 percent goes toward administrative and fundraising expenses. Donors to JCCF can feel confident their gifts benefit the research that has consistently made JCCC a leader in its field.
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For news on our activities and research, sign up to receive JCCF e-mail and become a fan of UCLA Fights Cancer on Facebook.
JOIN US FOR THE
LA HALF-MARATHON
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Run or walk the Half-Marathon Charity Challenge!
The LA Charity Challenge Half Marathon is part of the Los Angeles Marathon where everyone participating is giving back! This is a unique event that has the intimate feel of a close-knit nonprofit community while enjoying the high energy and support of one of the largest marathons in the country.
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Fierce Sisters Fight Cancer is raising money for the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation. The money you raise or donate is not only tax-deductible, but it goes directly to Dr. Gottfried Konecny and Dr. Dennis Slamon's UCLA Translational Lab to benefit the Ovarian Cancer Research Program at UCLA JCCF. There are limited registrations available for this event available only to those who fundraise for an official Marathon Nonprofit Charity Partner
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Questions about the LA Marathon Charity Challenge?
Please email: RDicamillo@mednet.ucla.edu
Can’t participate, but still want to support the Fierce Sisters?
Start your own online fundraiser! Contact RJ DiCamillo at rdicamillo@mednet.ucla.edu for instructions.
