We are getting support from high visibility people. In December there will be a fund raiser for OCF at the home of Tom Fontana ( Google him he's a powerful media guy) co-hosted by Blythe Danner and the Paltrow family in NYC. We're hoping for 75 attendees and patrons. There is an oral cancer segment on Good Morning America on the 8th of this month, though we will not get mentioned by name, the disease is out there. That was a year in the making with ABC and at the end of the day we are only getting 5 minutes. But I was able to get Dr. Gillison interviewed and one of our own from the boards is the patient being interviewed. There is more, but it has all taken years to bring to fruition, and it is a tough, long haul to make things happen. There are no big corporate players in the world of oral cancer to tap into for support. It is a grass roots effort, and our ranks are small. Low incidence of the disease compared to the really big one like breast or lung, and poor survival means few volunteers and donors at the end of the day.

I am not cynical about all this, just realistic. I do not believe that it will always be like this, but it may take many more years and deaths for this to get on the big stage and in the spotlight. But I assure you that I am working every angle available to me with the small infrastructure and amount of money we have to work with. The economy has hurt our donations in a very big way, and the last 3 months have been the worst months for OCF donations since 2002. While this is depressing after as many years as I have put into this, I have to believe that it isn't always about being rich in money (though that seriously helps) it is being rich in ideas and vision to make things happen. I'll post over the weekend of some of the visibility successes we have had recently. While they do not translate into funds that we can use, they certainly benefit the cause.