I cried this month at our SAA Summit
WOW
Many of you know I have been involved with Swim Across America for over 30 years and have seen some fantastic results from the donations our organization has raised from many of you. One of my proudest achievements has come from being a part of the group that set up the funding for Memorial Sloan Kettering's Swim Across America Lab, which has successfully created a Cancer Immunotherapy vaccine today and has changed the way many cancer treatments have evolved.
''SAA funding has played a major role in clinically developing the four FDA-approved immunotherapy medicines ipilimumab (YERVOY), nivolumab (OPDIVO), pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA) and atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ)'' Jedd Wolchok
Dr. Luis Diaz of Memorial Sloan Kettering
Please go to these links
https://vimeo.com/436927213
https://www.mskcc.org/news/rectal-cancer-clinical-trial-msk-changed-everything-its-patients
If you have gone to these links, you will realize why I cried. With all the help from the SAA community (that is, all of you who have donated and participated in our events), we can now proudly say we have changed the way cancer is treated in at least some cancers and are able to say we have changed the treatment for the better.... This is just the beginning.
We have granted over $100M to fund cancer research and clinical trials at world-renowned research institutes and organizations, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Moffitt Cancer Center, Chicago Rush University Medical Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Hollings Cancer Center, Mass General Hospital for Children Cancer Center, Massey Cancer Center, MD Anderson, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), Rogel Cancer Center at the University of Michigan, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Levine Cancer Institute, Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas, Nantucket Cottage Hospital, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Feinstein Institute of North Shore, Women and Infants Hospital Rhode Island, Siteman Cancer Center, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
I am proud to say that 2023 Swim Across America with host 23 Open Water Events this year, To raise over $10M. To kick off the season, the Florida Keys will have its second annual swim for our beneficiary in South Florida and the Florida Keys, The Miami Cancer Institute. We hope to raise over $150,000.00 and Make Waves to Fight Cancer. So please follow this link to sign up and swim or Volunteer
https://www.swimacrossamerica.org/site/TR/OpenWater/FloridaKeys?fr_id=6441&pg=entry
Donate to help and continue to find cures for fighting cancer.
Thank You
Bob Coakley
