It was a privilege to be the 2020 honoree of the LungForce walk event and now to serve as Chair of the NJ Chapter's Leadership Board. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unimaginable challenges across the world and has magnified health disparities. The American Lung Association heard the call to action and has been working nonstop to support people living with lung disease, and essential workers on the front lines, with advocacy, education, and research. I'm looking forward to this event and greatly appreciate your support. Our collective efforts will help raise awareness and funds to protect lung health.

The LUNG FORCE mission of the American Lung Association is close to my heart as a woman standing with women against lung cancer and for lung health.
My late father taught me about tobacco addiction that he said as a non smoker, I'd never fully understand. I'd get into trouble when I naively thought that hiding or cutting his cigarettes in half and putting them back into the pack would magically get him to stop smoking. When I was in pulmonary clinical practice we had more adult discussions about my dad's smoking and he described his addiction in a way he had never before articulated. He said, "When I was a kid in Siberia and had no food, someone gave me cigarettes and it did something to me. He said, now, that I have lots of food and love to eat, if I was starving again and you put a plate of food in front of me and a pack of cigarettes, I'd choose the cigarettes every time. It's that powerful."
In practice, I cared for men and women with lung diseases and lung cancer related to HIV infection, tobacco, occupational exposure, and some with no obvious exposures. I think of a mom with a 3-month old baby who I had to tell that the fluid around her lung was cancerous, knowing she'd never see her child grow up. And a woman in her 40's who had just become a partner in her firm and had to suddenly plan her life and practice around her chemotherapy for lung cancer that was too advanced to be removed. There were many more.
At the time, we had little to offer people with advanced lung cancer to make their lives better for their long-term and often lung cancer diagnosis in women was delayed because of the perceived low risk. In my years in the pharmaceutical industry I've seen the tremendous advances offering hope for more precise and personalized care. There's still a lot to do to ensure that research continues and people are promptly diagnosed and treated in ways that allow them to live their best lives.

Your donation and participation, will help support the American Lung Association's research innovation, which leads to early detection for all and better treatments that give everyone a fighting chance.

To support my efforts, and to help save lives, please donate now.

Be a part of the FORCE to defeat lung cancer and lung disease one step at a time.