Today is World Cancer Day, a chance for people across the globe to stand together and raise awareness of groundbreaking cancer research, treatment and prevention.
Stand Up to Cancer is leading a global movement encouraging people to hold up signs showing who they stand for. These “I Stand Up For…” placards share, in several different languages, a message of hope for husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, and patients battling cancer.
“World Cancer Day gives people around the world the opportunity to support promising research, as well as a platform to recognize loved ones who are in treatment or recovery and honor those who are gone,” said NancyDavidson, M.D., director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and UPMC CancerCenter. “The support of family and caregivers is crucial to patients, and this movement gives all of us a chance to stand up and honor their fight.”
At UPMC, we want to support all those impacted by cancer today. People like our own Bill Rolland, a staff nurse at UPMC Mercy South Side whose squamous cell cancer was discovered after he returned from active duty with the U.S. Army in Kosovo in 2006.
“My treatment was not easy,” said Rolland, who has been cancer free for five years now. “The staff who performed my radiation were very important to me since they helped me get through. Many times I felt like giving up. Without them, I am not sure I could have completed the treatment.”
Visit the UPMC CancerCenter Facebook page today to see more stories of hope from our staff about their own journeys as patients, survivors and caregivers. In the comments section below, tell us who you would like to stand up for.
