I don't know if you all already know about this web site or not, I just learned of it. I belong to another cancer site, it is in the UK. I found it before I found this one. It is no where near the size of this one, but the people are great on it. It is National Mouth Cancer Awareness WEEK. November 7- 13. We are all buying Blue RIbbons and going to try to get the word out about this horrible disease. We are making some ourselves. The Dentists, the ENT's, Oral surgeons should all have something about this in all there waiting rooms....Do you agree with this? I sure do. My doctor at UCI Irving is going to have a week of free exams to help get the word out....I just thought if you didn't know about this web site, mavbe you would like to know about it. ......Always Miss Vicki

SPOHNC has been on our resources list for four years. We have members that love the face to face support groups there, and some that have found them lacking. Nevertheless, every organization that helps get the word out and supports those with the disease deserves to be seen in my opinion. I am less in favor of subscription or paid information, newsletters, etc. and OCF has strived to put everything we have out there for free. Of course that makes our financial situation tenuous from month to month, but I refuse to sell information to those who need it. It is a philosophical difference between OCF and some other organizations. As to the ribbons, we chose not to go there, since there are so many different colored ribbons out there, that except for pink (breast cancer) and red (aids) no one who looks at the over 5 thousand registered colors and designs, knows what they are looking at. (the ribbon from SPOHNC and UK are two different colors and designs, as is the one from a few head and neck cancer organizations.) I find it frustrating that some organizations insist on going their own way, in lieu of working together for a real cohesive national effort, and they do this because there is a fear that a potential financial sponsor might choose one over another, or that a visitor to the site might donate to someone else if they let them know the other site is out there. Take a look at spohnc's resources list and see if you can find OCF on it....(you won't). If you want to support the UK group, send money instead of buying ribbons, since they, like us, need it. Dr Vinod K Joshi who runs it is someone that I consider a personal friend. Like me, he is essentially working alone, but as a doctor has some connections to pharma companies that I just don't have. SPOHNC has plenty of corporate sponsors and paying newsletter subscribers, so they fall into a different league than us.

We are in the process of writing with a new corporate sponsor just for this idea, waiting room brochures to put in dentists offices. So that is a project we hope to have finished by years end, if they provide the printing money in time. There is a national US effort to do oral cancer screenings and get publicity for it. All the upcoming dates for the next five years are on the events link on the web site. We will be doing this in conjunction with the Oral Cancer Consortium (22 institutions so far and growing) on the east coast (started by my friend Dean Mike Alfano of NYU) and are enrolling dental schools around the country to get on board with us to make that THE national date everyone uses to bring media attention to the disease at a national level. A huge group of organizations all doing it on one day gets the attention more than isolated screenings here and there. But the local impact of screenings cannot be over emphasized. I just hope that they ALSO choose to do one on the national day.

Okay I feel stupid, LOL, I just heard about this thru RDOC. WOW, I had no idea....Thank you for setting me striaght....Miss Vicki

Brian-
Do you think OCF could get the dentists to work with local American Cancer Society Relay for Life to do oral cancer screenings at their events? Maybe the local level is something the rest of us here on this site could work on at all of our various locations. When the dentist brochures are finished, we distribute them and also try to find a few in each town to commit to doing the screenings at the Relay where we can also distribute the OCF web site cards! Just think of all the printing we would need to accomplish that! - Kris

Vicki..... don't feel stupid, just spend some time wandering arond the hundreds of pages of content on our site, (more than 300 pages of news articel for instance) pages on emotional assistance, and much more, including our resource list. I've worked hard for almost 5 years to build and write it all. You surely can't know all about it in the short time you've been coming, cause it changes weekly and gets added to all the time. Every week someone posts a link to something, out in the www that is already on our resources list. Don't feel alone. But if someone finds an organizaiton of value and credibility that isn't there, just email me with the data and I will review it and get it added. The idea is to give people every bit of information they can possible have a need for, every resource, etc. even if it means somone might like someone like SPOHNC better than us. The idea is to helpm no matter what the outcome.......hopefully the rest, like donations will take care of itself.

Kris, that would be a great idea, or give out "have you had one" buttons or something else. The priniting costs that this sponsor is willing to cover will only allow us to reach a small protion of dentists in the US, but at least the core artwork will be done, and the reprinting costs will be less. We'll give some away, and hopefully sell some to dentsits through the OCF web store, and that will cover the costs of continued printing and distribution. I will post here as they get closer to being printed. Along that small note, we just got in another 10,000 OCF lobby/postcards for helping patinets at cancer centers find this forum. Anyone who would like some and stands for them, just email me with all your shipping info and how many packs of 50 you need and how many stands and I'll get them out to you if you want to work the radiation departments, and social services people at any cancer centers in your area with them. This is our third run of 10,000, all hand distributed by OCF volunteers. But we need to develop a data base of who all the key people are in these departments to do some direct mailing in areas where we don't have members who can drop them off and resupply the hospitals nursing staffs.

Brian...my husband is a federal government employee, as I was, each year employees donate millions of dollars to charities through the Government's Combined Federal Campaign. Employees contribute voluntarily through payroll deduction to hundreds of non-profit organizations, including multiple cancer awareness organizations. He attempted to contribute to the Oral Cancer Foundation but it was not listed as an option. What can we do to have OCF included in the Combined Federal Campaign? Thanks, Carol