Celebrities Launch MFWN
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Jack Black, Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Barry Sanders,
Gavin DeGraw and many other Notable Celebrities
Launch Noreen Fraser Foundation’s Men For Women Now Initiative
LOS ANGELES, June 2009 – The Men for Women Now campaign is a program of the
Noreen Fraser Foundation (NFF) that stresses the importance of early detection for the prevention of women’s cancers. The campaign targets men and urges them to encourage the women in their lives to schedule appointments for a mammogram and a Pap smear.
Notable celebrities who are participating in the cause include: Jack Black, Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Gavin DeGraw, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry Sanders, and Geraldo Rivera. These leading men are working closely with the Noreen Fraser Foundation to create video messages, which can be viewed by going to www.menforwomennow.com. Many of the celebrities also participated in the NFF Mother’s Day campaign by creating e-cards urging everyone to send early detection viral messages to their wives, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters and friends. With a touch of humor, the video messages and e-cards send an important reminder to women that there is nothing more important than their health.
Noreen Fraser is the co-creator and co-producer of Stand Up To Cancer, which raised over $100 million dollars, “Early detection may be as close as we can get to a cure today,” says Noreen Fraser, breast cancer survivor and founder of the Noreen Fraser Foundation. “Some women avoid the tests because they are afraid, others claim they are too busy and some because they think that they will hurt, but nothing hurts more than a cancer diagnosis that may have been prevented.”
The Men For Women Now initiative hopes to inspire men to show their love and support for the women in their lives by asking them if they scheduled their early detection tests. “Women have traditionally been seen as the hand holders, but we hope if the men in their lives offer up their support, more women will have tests and more lives will be saved,” Fraser adds.
The Noreen Fraser Foundation: The Noreen Fraser Foundation uses educational and awareness campaigns to raise funds for translational cancer research aimed at developing new prevention methods, diagnostic tools and non-toxic therapies to treat women’s cancers. Our hope is that until there is a CURE, women’s cancers will become manageable diseases which can be controlled with targeted treatments that protect patients’ quality of life. Noreen Fraser, a stage IV cancer survivor, has played a pivotal role in raising money and awareness of the importance of translational cancer research as co-creator and co-producer of Stand Up To Cancer, a movement which has raised over 100 million dollars for cancer research to date. Noreen Fraser also encourages people around the world to share their cancer related stories and videos with the Noreen Fraser Foundation by submitting directly to the NFF website at www.noreenfraserfoundation.org.
2008 Cancer Facts: The American Cancer Society has reported that breast cancer is the second most common cancer among American women. The chance of developing invasive breast cancer at some time in a woman’s life is about 1 in 8 (12%). In 2008, it was estimated that 182,460 new cases of invasive breast cancer would be diagnosed among women in the United States and that about 67,770 new cases of non-invasive (DCIS) breast cancer would be diagnosed.
Death rates from breast cancer have been declining since about 1990, with larger decreases in women younger than 50. These decreases are believed to be the result of earlier detection through screening and increased awareness, as well as improved treatment.
Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer death for American women. The number of American women with cervical cancer has decreased about 75 percent in the past 50 years – largely due to the Pap test. A Pap smear can find changes in the cervix before cancer develops. It can also find early cancer in its most curable stage. Additionally, Gardasil, an FDA-approved vaccine, has also been recommended to reduce the risk of cervical cancer. Gardasil protects against HPV, a virus that is the leading cause of cervical cancer.
Ovarian Cancer will claim the lives of over 21,000 women this year. It is most often detected in a late stage and is a cancer that has been understudied. The Noreen Fraser Foundation intends to change this by investing in science that will find better treatments.
