Thank you everyone! Let the work begin...

Here is a thank you letter I posted on the 2006 LIVESTRONG SUMMIT forum and sent to the LAF.....funny to see it again. My personal action plan morphed over time and became much bigger. I am proud to say I did everything I set out to do and much more. I never thought I would be very good at the fundraising part, but during the last year we have raised over $32,000 and we still have much more to do. This letter shows how inspired I was coming out of the Summit and it has not changed to this day. I highly encourage you to APPLY today for the 2008 LIVESTRONG SUMMIT.

Let me start off by saying thank you to Lance, Mitch, Doug and all of the LAF volunteers which organized such a spectacular event and weekend. I would also like to thank Senator John Kerry, LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., M.D., Author Jim Collins, Mike Milken, Antonia C. Novello, Elizabeth Edwards and all other speakers during the summit. I thoroughly enjoyed the summit and was honored to be with all of the delegates.

I would also like to take a second to thank everyone for such great discussions and working together to identify numerous areas we will target to improve and fix. A special thanks to everyone at Table #75. I was touched to hear everyone’s journey and extremely pleased with the positive attitudes. Thanks to Joe for keeping everyone focused on the goals of the work sessions.

My goal is to educate people by bringing the information to the people, instead of having the people go places that they might not go to for information. I am starting in high schools and colleges to speak on how to check yourself for specific types of cancer cancers (i.e. testicular, breast, etc.) and an overview on several types of cancer. In parallel, I will be creating hand outs that Doctors can give to patients which will supply them the proper information on their specific type of cancer and help direct them to proper web sites and other sources of information.

As the Lance Armstrong Foundation stresses "Knowledge is Power". We need to give everyone the knowledge for early detection and for "next step" information after one is diagnosed.I look forward to the challenges we will face. I will be there for all of the delegates and anyone else who is affected by cancer. If there is anything I can do to assist any of you please do not hesitate to ask. Remember, “Unity is Strength.”

It is up to us to change the world. We will make a difference! We will LIVESTRONG!

Brian Dowd