Congratulations Brian.
The OCF has provided a beacon of hope and help for those of us diagnosed with this disease and our caregivers.
I can't thank you enough for the help and for the opportunity to help others that the foundation has provided me.

I would like to join in with those encouraging a donation to the foundation.
It's the time of year when large corporations hold their "Giving Campaigns" and payroll deduction is an easy way to make a donation, while potentially getting some matching money from your employer.
Check it out. Or send a check.
We are all aware of the work that Brian and the Foundation do.
There is no other charity more deserving of our support.

Good Health,
Chuck

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations Brian. No one deserves it more than you. As one who went through treatment right before you with no support group whatsoever, I know how much this forum has to mean to people. Thanks you for your time and dedication to this cause.

Take care,
Eileen

I would like to thank all of you for your well wishes. This was all kind of a surprise to me. Most of the time I do not think of organizations like this, as the day to day interactions with patients, researchers, students and more keep me pretty focused on the tasks at hand, and while I interact with RO's all the time, I wouldn't have guessed that as a group they would have even noticed OCF, let alone me individually.

Of course the great benefit of this is that it becomes another vehicle to get the oral cancer story out in the media, which it appears that ASTRO has done, and on the morning of the award next week, they have arranged several radio interviews (one live, two recording for future release) about patient issues (which I will turn into oral cancer issues).

For all the kind comments posted here, I want you all to remember, especially since most of you mentioned the forum, three things. ALL OF YOU make this forum the rich, helpful, nurturing environment that it is, not me. Without you it is just a piece of software. What OCF has accomplished is primarily because of my desire to build strategic relationships with others that can help us move our disease into the light, find answers for questions, and much more. Were it not for the strengths of those partners like Gillison in research as just one example, no one would notice, since there would be no shoulders for me to stand on. I and the foundation are only as strong as those who partner with and support us. And last, that I am common beyond words, too common for this kind of recognition. The redeeming trait I do posses, is tenacity, which for the most part means that it never occurs to me that something can not be done given enough effort, and less than I choose to tilt at windmills.

The ASTRO award or any other recognition that you receive, Brian, is so richly deserved for all that you have done for us and for bringing to light the oral cancer issues. We are all so fortunate to have found you and this forum. OCF has been a lifesaver in my darkest moments and the hope and the light at the end of the dark tunnel. Congratulations and thank you for being one awesome guy!

Brian, you've become one of my personal heroes. And I don't have many.

David 2

How fabulous. I echo the others in saying that you are MY Hero. You know why you were put here and we all are grateful that you were.

Congratulations

Donna

Congrats Brian...not much to add that hasn't already been said.

But..Thank you, for providing a place for us to meet and for everything else you do.

Congratulations Brian,
May this award help in the campaign to irradicate OC and all cancers. Thank you for what you have done and are doing. May you continue to greater success in your efforts.
Malka