Moore Fight Moore Strong (MFMS) – an organization with a mission to carry on the legacy of their best friend, Jessica Moore, to raise awareness for Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) – has worked to unite over 80 locations across the globe to illuminate major landmarks in green, pink and teal to raise awareness for Metastatic Breast Cancer on and around MBC Awareness Day on Sunday, October 13th. The “Light Up MBC” campaign has been initiated in support of Annapolis-based non-profit METAvivor Research and Support, Inc.
The Memorial Bridge near Jessica’s hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire was the first landmark to light up for the disease in October 2017, just five months after Jessica’s passing at the age of 36. Prior to Jessica’s passing, she said she thought it would be amazing to light a landmark for MBC to raise awareness for METAvivor and that conversation has guided us to take this internationally.
Moore Fight Moore Strong is asking the public to visit one of dozens of participating landmarks on the evening of their local lighting, take a picture, and post it publicly to social media using the hashtag #LightUpMBC, #METAvivor. For those who cannot get to a lighting, simply use Google Earth to screenshot a landmark and post your pic.
Why is this important? Often in a month filled with pink celebrations, the Metastatic Breast Cancer community feels forgotten. Metastatic Breast Cancer (often also referred to as Stage IV) is breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast to other organs in the body typically the liver, lung, brain and bones. There is no cure for Stage IV MBC and the life expectancy of men and women diagnosed with the disease is, on average, 24-36 months. “Bringing awareness to MBC is critical. There are 114 people that die of MBC every day. This is often not discussed,” said Inahara. “While 30% of early stage breast cancer patients will metastasize, only 2 to 5% of all breast cancer funds raised go to Stage IV breast cancer research to find a cure, or make the disease a lifelong manageable illness. Over 42,000 lives are taken annually by this disease.”
Said Inahara, “Jessica encouraged us all to advocate because she knew the more we talked about MBC, the more people would understand it and that would result in advocacy for change. There is often a misconception that there is a cure for breast cancer and we want to educate anyone who will listen, that there is not presently a cure. We would like the public to reconsider where they are investing their charitable donations and consider METAvivor Research and Support Inc., as they remain the only U.S. organization dedicated to awarding annual, peer reviewed, Stage IV breast cancer research grants.”
To find October dates and landmarks, log onto www.moorefightmoorestrong.com/events.html.
Participating cities:
Anchorage, Atlanta, Auckland, Baltimore, Boston, Branson, Buffalo, Calgary, Camden, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Dover, Duluth, Eagan, Fort Erie, Fort Wayne, Gilbert, Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Halifax, Harrisburg, Honolulu, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Kilkenny, Kittery, Lexington, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Minneapolis, Mobile, Montgomery, Nashville, National Harbor, New Orleans, NYC, Niagara Falls, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Portsmouth, Poughkeepsie, Richmond, Rochester, Saint Louis, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle, Sussex County, Sydney, Toronto, Yonkers, Vancouver
