Message and Update From the President:  Catherine Poole

  I’m sure many of you are still vacationing and won’t see this until September, but we’re still plugging away here catching up on what we get too busy to do in the other seasons. Top-most in our minds is spreading our mission to everyone we can, that until melanoma has a viable treatment, we must find it early when it is curable.  Skin examination is the tool, preferably by you and a professional.  After a summer of sun exposure (we hope protected) brings the perfect time to do a skin exam.

   Secondly, we want research for melanoma to be recognized as equally important to other disease sites. We support clinical trial research by personally navigating patients to trials whenever possible. Recognizing the imperfection of melanoma research, we still find the most promise in these trials for a cure.  We also take a stand in national meetings to keep melanoma on the front burner.  I will be traveling to the presidential primary debates in Iowa to make sure our voice is heard among the candidates.

     We are very excited to launch this new website we’ve been working on for many months. We hope it will be become evident as the most accurate and helpful melanoma website on the net.  We have an exciting tool that allows translation of any of our web information into many languages.  This will further our mission to reach our international partners. Also, my book Melanoma Prevention, Detection and Treatment with DuPont Guerry, MD, will shortly be published in China by Beijing University Press. (we mail the book out free to all melanoma patients that ask)

      The summer has brought many gifts to MIF.  Our hotline was hopping as the word gets out about our personal guidance to patients and families in need of guidance. We have new partnerships with department stores, Boscov’s and Macy’s where we will be educating patrons about melanoma.  The success of our SEED events to bring melanoma awareness to many parts of the country has allowed us to hire a SEED coordinator.  We continue to work with USA Field Hockey to establish an education program with the potential to educate 15,000 young women nationally.

     Our greatest gift of all is you:  the patient, the family member, the friend, who cares about melanoma awareness and making a difference now.  The support you bring is invaluable!  We’ve come to learn that your word of mouth is far more effective than expensive public relations campaigns. We couldn’t exist without you and thank you for continuing to grow with the Melanoma International Foundation.