Cancer

Will Ferrell might be a funny man most of the time, but on occasion, he gets serious about certain issues. Recently, the actor hosted the Cancer For College Golf Classic and Live Auction. The event was a huge success, raising around $250,000 and giving out 15 or 20 scholarship checks.

Ferrell began the event as one of his most-loved characters, Ron Burgandy (from Anchorman), saying, “It is a glorrrious day here in beautiful San Diego, we’ve got a record turnout. I thought there’d be more media here frankly, for some one of my stature. In fact, I’ll have to say as I look out into the face of the media here, you guys look like a bunch of idiots compared to when I was in the newes game. Have some class, some dignity. I don’t see anyone wearing a suit.”

Cancer For College has long been supported by Ferrell, and for good reason. It was founded by his college buddy, Craig Pollard, who is a two-time cancer survivor. Pollard found strength in knowing that, after getting a bone marrow transplant, he would return to college, and he wants other kids and young adults to have that same opportunity.

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Last Friday night held two major, start-studded events — Stand Up To Cancer and Fashion Rocks. One of my favorite singer/designers, Justin Timberlake, performed for Fashion Rocks to celebrate the relationship between music and fashion.

A bunch of famous faces joined him, and the female singers, including Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Natasha Bedingfield, Carrie Underwood, Fergie, and Sheryl Crow, to name a few, sang Just Stand Up, an unprecedented collaboration to support the fight against cancer. The song was beamed to the Stand Up To Cancer telethon.

Aside from Just Stand Up, there were a number of other musical performances by the likes of Kid Rock, the Pussycat Dolls, Keith Urban, the Black Eyed Peas, and Duffy. Justin and Beyonce also teamed up for a duet that completely rocked the house.

And remember, JT is serious when it comes to charity work. You might remember his golf tournament last year, the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Well, he’s planning on hosting it once again this year, October 13 through 19 in Las Vegas.

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Did you have a chance to watch the Stand Up To Cancer telethon? If not, you definitely missed out. It was truly a magnificently star-studded event, although there was absolutely no celebrity attitude — everyone was there for a cause, and that took precedence over anything else.

Halle Berry, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Garner, and Casey Affleck read accounts of people who have or currently are battling cancer, some with inspiring, happy endings, and some ending in tragedy. Patrick Swayze, who announced earlier this year that he’s battling pancreatic cancer, made an appearance and looked remarkably healthy.

An incredible list of the world’s best known singers, including Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow (both cancer survivors) lent their voices to a new song, called Just Stand Up, but even those who weren’t singing kept busy. Plenty of other celebs, like Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Applegate, Keanu Reeves, Jack Black, and Hilary Swank took part in different ways, but perhaps the most memorable “performance” was by Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond, who underwent a prostate exam live on TV.

The basis of this telethon, which was broadcast by ABC, NBC, and CBS for one hour on Friday, was that there simply isn’t enough funding for cancer research, and that with more funding, a cure could be found. If you didn’t have a chance to donate during the show, you can make a donation now by visiting the Stand Up To Cancer website, or you can place a bid in an auction to meet a number of celebrities by visiting ebay.

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The Who played their first U.S. concert in Detroit, and have held that part of the country close to their hearts ever since. Singer Roger Daltrey said, “Pete Townshend and I are very aware of the problems people are having in Michigan and fell we should give something back for all the support we have had over the last 40 years.”

Give something back is putting it mildly — the classic rockers will be donating all proceeds from their October 21 concert in Michigan’s The Palace of Auburn Hills to benefit Detroit charities Gleaners Community Food Bank and Focus: Hope.

Charity is nothing new for The Who. Back in 1976, they founded a charity called Double O to help with drug and alcohol damage, domestic violence, sexual abuse, music education, emergency relief for international disasters, and young people’s prison reform. More recently, they’ve been highly involved in raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), a charity that works to build specialist cancer units.

Daltrey explained that, “Seventy percent of young people with cancer still don’t have access to a TCT Unit… These units are a right, not a privilege. We all know that without teenagers, without their energy and their passion for music, we wouldn’t have rock and roll as we know it. It is out duty to fight for this group and give them a voice within the National Health Service.”

Who knew these aging rockers were so altruistic?

Photo courtesy of curiosidademusical.com

Occasionally, large groups of celebrities will get together to support a cause, but very rarely will three television networks join together as well. Don’t get me wrong — it’s happened before, for Hurricane Katrina support, but it’s not a common event, by any means. And that makes the Stand Up To Cancer telethon that much more special.

On September 5, CBS, NBC, and ABC will air a celebrity-jammed telethon for one hour, commercial-free, during which actors, singers, athletes, and other famous personalities will take part in musical performances and appeals to get people to dig deep and make a donation to fight cancer.

Celebrities taking part are (deep breath) Meryl Streep, Forrest Whitaker, Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Lance Armstrong, Hilary Swank, America Ferrera, Salma Hayek, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Masi Oka and Danica Patrick. News anchors Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charles Gibson will join them, as will Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and former Senator John Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth. Robin and Elizabeth have battled breast cancer.

It’s sure to be an entertaining, yet emotional night of television. Make sure you’ve got a comfy seat on the couch at 8 p.m. on September 5 — you can call the celebrity phone bank, make a donation, and make a difference by standing up to cancer.

Photo courtesy of jenaniston.net

Cindy Crawford is more familiar with pediatric cancer than you might realize. The supermodel’s younger brother, Jeff, was a leukemia patient at the University of Wisconsin Children’s hospital in 1975. He died just before he turned four years old.

This past weekend, Cindy made some appearances in Madison, Wisconsin, to raise awareness of pediatric cancer. She’s the honorary chair of Kids with Courage, a group that reunites childhood cancer survivors and their families. This year marked the fourth reunion. Cindy took part in the three previous reunions in 1993, 1998, and 2003.

According to the University of Wisconsin, Cindy has been contributing her time and her money to its Pediatric Oncology program for almost two decades. She said, “When I was able to start raising money and awareness, I was able to choose where do I want to give back in my life and this just was the first place that popped into my head.”

The Kids with Courage reunions not only allow patients who survived childhood cancer to see each other again, but also allows the families of children who did not survive to see the children and families they spent time with in the hospital when their child was sick. And, former patients get to see their old doctors, which is great for both of them.

Photo courtesy of askmen.com

Paul Newman is an amazing example of kindness and generosity. Between the years of 2005 and 2006, Paul privately turned over the full value of his Newman’s Own ownership to the Newman’s Own Foundation. The value of the donation is estimated to be around $120 million. Seriously.

This is true to form for the actor/director/activist, who reportedly gave away $8,746,500 of his personal fortune to charitable groups supporting children, Gulf Coast hurricane relief, education, and the arts. All of this is done quietly, as far under the radar as possible. Some of the organizations he contributes to are well known, but many are small, worthy organizations that aren’t well publicized.

Paul is currently in the news for some far less happy news, however — he is fighting lung cancer. However, just to be clear, his massive donation did not occur as a result of his diagnosis — he made the decision to turn his ownership value over to the Newman’s Own Foundation to celebrate his 80th birthday, before he was diagnosed with cancer. He issued a statement just today regarding his health, saying that he’s “doing nicely” by way of his mouthpiece.

Along with the rest of the world, I wish him all the best in his fight against cancer, and continue to be amazed by his generosity.

Photo courtesy of reuters.com

You might know his as McDreamy, but a lot of folks are now calling him a dream come true. Patrick Dempsey, star of Grey’s Anatomy, has opened The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing at the Central Maine Medical Center.

Dempsey understands all too well how difficult it is for a family to receive a cancer diagnosis — his mother has had continuous battles with ovarian cancer, which is what put the idea for the Center in Dempsey’s mind. He realized that for families who try to do the research, all the information can be overwhelming yet insufficient, so he decided to create “a place where people can go for all this type of information and help. Knowledge is power.”

The Central Maine Medical Center is the hospital that treated his mother and sent her cancer into remission, so Dempsey made a great decision in choosing to put his money and fame to work in that location. His sister will run the Center, but the actor plans to do his part as well by lending a hand with the education campaign on how to prevent and treat cancer.

I know — as if you didn’t already have a huge crush on him.

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Earlier this month, Bon Jovi headlined a concert to raise funds for cancer research. The concert benefited Stand Up For A Cure, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending lung cancer.

The band dedicated the concert to Richie Sambora’s father, who died of cancer just last year. To honor him, Richie opened with a solo. The show took place on February 12 and was already sold out about a week ahead of time, at which point it had already raised $1 million to fund two mobile hospice units for low-income New York neighborhoods. Stand Up For A Cure announced on its website that the two state of the art units will be named the “Adam and Joan Sambora Mobile Care Units.”

Other celebrities planning to perform for the cause are Jerry Seinfeld, Brian Wilson, and Andrea Bocelli. All performances will take place throughout the year in the New York City area as part of the inaugural Stand Up For A Cure concert series.

Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk